


Fly Me to the Moon

by peacefulboo, seeintheaether



Series: FLY [2]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Dating, Developing Relationship, F/M, First Date
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2020-08-23 12:29:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20242888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefulboo/pseuds/peacefulboo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/seeintheaether/pseuds/seeintheaether
Summary: Tessa never knew dating could be this fun.(Further scenes from the Fast Like You universe, starting with the first date.)





	1. fly me to the moon

**Author's Note:**

> The response to the FLY was incredible and just completely mind blowing so we hope y'all wanna come with us as we tell more of those stories. 
> 
> This will be a series of contained scenes, most of which will focus primarily on Tessa and Scott's new relationship, but Jo will absolutely make appearances because C and I adore her and obviously love writing her interactions with the people in her life. C and I will be collaborating on this fic as well, though, as usual, she's gonna hide behind her single letter anonymity and I'm gonna be the face of this madness. Enjoy this first fluffy little bit. May it bring you a spot of joy. 
> 
> Also, it should go without saying, but all RPF is AU. None of what we write is an attempt to predict, or manipulate reality. Fic and life are separate entities and we fucking love that. It's happy making that we can play with what essentially have become our own characters based on the visible things that we have observed about some rad real people, but who aren't those real people. And it's happy making for us that they get to live their very real, complicated lives and make their own decisions. And that ne'er the twain shall meet. As the doofiest dude alive likes to say, "Don't forget to love each other."
> 
> Thanks to D (thatsamoireh), as always, for cleaning up the messes I make. ;)

Tessa is just slipping on her last earing as the doorbell rings. She takes a centering breath before quickly making her way down the stairs and to her front door. 

She can’t help the wide smile that graces her face when she opens the door and sees Scott standing on her stoop, a small bouquet of fall flowers in his hands. His eyes widen as he sees her and she feels a little thrill at his obvious interest. She’s wearing a green wrap dress with a deep neckline and fluttering skirt and while she wasn’t unaware of how it played to all of her strengths, she’ll take the confirmation.

“Hi! Come in,” she says as she opens the door wider and stands aside. 

“Hey.” His voice is pitched lower than she’s heard from him and she shivers just a touch as he slides past her. He hands her the flowers with a quiet, “For you,” and kisses her on the cheek. 

“Thank you! They’re lovely,” she tells him as she kisses his cheek in turn. _Fuck he smells amazing._ She ducks to look at the flowers for real this time and finds that they are lovely, if not filled with her favorites due to the season. Instead of the soft blush pinks of the ranunculus and peonies of early summer, it’s colored with rich gold daisies, dark red mums, burnt orange zinnias, and sweet purple asters. “I’m going to get these in some water.” 

“Take your time,” he tells her. 

“Follow me,” Tessa says as she walks backward into the kitchen. She smiles as he toes off his shoes at the door and does as she asks. “How was your day?” She stands on her tiptoes to grab a vase out of the cabinet, and fills it with water for the flowers. She’ll worry about choosing a proper vessel and arranging them later. She also makes a mental note to take a picture of them for Joanna since she won’t get to see them until after the weekend and her daughter will adore all the color. 

“Good. It looks like I’ll make my deadline, so that’s always a plus.” He sounds so relieved that she can’t help but smile in response. She has a feeling that she’ll be doing a lot of smiling tonight. She can hope so anyway. 

“It’s the best feeling, isn’t it?” 

“It’s up there,” he replies with a nod. They lapse into an easy silence as she cleans up the fallen petals and drops of water but once she’s wiped her hands on a tea towel and turned back to him she can see he’s pensive. 

“You okay?” she asks. 

“Yeah,” he answers, though he keeps looking at her with a disarming intensity. “I just need to clarify one thing.”

“Okay,” she says, folding her hands together in front of her and doing her best to keep an open posture despite the spike of anxiety that runs through her at his serious face. 

“This is a date, right?” he asks. 

“Yes,” Tessa answers immediately. “That’s my understanding of what you meant by dinner.”

“Good,” he replies, a slow smile overtaking his pensive demeanor and lighting him up. “That’s very good. I figured, but you’d asked for coffee and then I changed it to dinner, and Charlie may have given me crap about me not being sure, which I think was meant to reassure me, but...brothers.”

Tessa has to laugh at how relieved he is to have read it right. “Brothers have that way,” she agrees. 

“Are you okay with me driving?”

“Please,” Tessa responds. As a single parent of a young kid, she’s almost always the one to drive herself places. It will be nice to be able to sit back and get to watch him while he’s distracted and focused on the road. “Let me get my jacket.” 

She opts for a well tailored black blazer, double checks to make sure her small bag has all of her essentials, they both slip on their shoes, and then he walks her out the door. They pause to lock up, and on impulse, Tessa reaches out to grab his hand as they make their way down her front steps to where his car is parked on the street. He opens the door for her and hands her in, the gesture a little unexpected but not unwelcome. 

Commentary for the Jays game plays low in the background as he navigates through the streets. The tapas and wine bar he chose is close by, so she only gets a few minutes to watch as the dying light changes the planes of his face. The part of the game they hear is boring, so he asks her what else she has planned for the weekend since she won’t have Jo. 

“It’s pretty much my normal routine. I sleep in some because I don’t have to get her ready for anything and if I have work to do, I can do it a little later, when I’m naturally at my peek. If I could, I’d shift my waking hours so they start at 10:00 am, and even after all these years of having a kid who is an early riser and being in the workforce, I think that still runs true. But I compensate by getting the brainless, routine things out of the way early so I can do my real work when I’m sharper mentally.”

He wrinkles his nose in response and says, “See, and I’m toast if I have to think too much after dinner time. Physical stuff, games and the like, I’m fine, but writing, research, all of that, I do best around sunup.”

“Are you one of those people that’s happy and alert when you first wake up?” she asks. At first blush this doesn’t seem like it’d fit what she knows about him, but when she thinks about his sunny disposition and intense work ethic, she can see it. If she also pictures him waking in the light of dawn, imagining how the early light would change his features much as dusk has done, well, he doesn’t need to know that. 

“Oh for sure,” he answers emphatically. “Guilty as charged.”

“I guess everyone has their flaws.” She honest to god winks at him as she says this and internally shakes her head at herself. Tessa Jane McCormick Virtue sucks at flirting. This is nothing new. But when she looks back at him, he’s still smiling as he looks through the windshield and she figures she must not be too bad at it. When he slips his hand under hers where it’s resting on the center console and coaxes her fingers into clasping his by running the tips of them along her palm, she thinks she just might be a champion. 

They find parking and don’t have to wait long for their table. The restaurant is the kind of place that feels relaxed but where everyone is dressed a little nicer than they normally might otherwise dress. The server comes to the table promptly and brings them their first course, a shared spread of olives, cheese, cured meats, and both dried and fresh fruit, along with wine. The food is good, and Tessa finds a combination of the right cheese and fruit to make her do a little chair dance, which makes Scott’s face scrunch in response. 

“I love how easy it seems to be to make you smile,” Scott says as he tries the same combination and quirks an eyebrow. It’s not quite in disgust but he’s obviously not as enamored with the choice, as he pops an olive into his mouth and hums. 

“I learned that from Jo, I think. She’s such a happy kid, it’s was easy, eventually, to learn how to be a happy mom for her.”

“I think it’s probably a bit of a positive feedback loop, though,” Scott says, gently encouraging Tessa to take the credit she deserves for her daughter’s sunny disposition. 

“That’s fair,” she concedes. “But honestly, life is just better when you do what you can to be happy and make those around you feel good. It doesn’t mean I ignore the hurt and anger and injustice, but I try my best not to stay there too long. And I get to have that choice, so why wouldn’t I choose joy?” It’s taken Tessa almost a decade to get to the place where she consistently can choose to lean into joy and kindness instead of skepticism and misery, but part of being a good therapist is taking the tools you give others and using them. And she’s not wrong about Jo often showing her the way. She just hopes she returns the favor when her daughter goes through her rough patches. 

There’s someone playing a piano, but the space is set up for more musicians and when Tessa makes a comment about it Scott nods, “Yeah. My buddy, Mick is the one playing the piano. They switch to the full band in half an hour. They’ll play jazz standards for a bit and then throw in some cumbia and salsa later on.”

Tessa raises her eyebrows and smiles over her wine glass, “Will there be dancing?” 

“There will be the opportunity for dancing,” Scott replies with a shrug. “If it’s something you’d be interested in. Otherwise at least the band is talented and versatile so if you get bored with me you’ll have something to listen to.”

Tessa raises an eyebrow at that and shakes her head. She doesn’t anticipate getting bored with him. “Is the dancing something you are hoping to take part in?” she asks instead. The day before he’d mentioned ice dance, but she imagines there’s a world of difference between that and this. 

“It’s entirely possible that it’s an activity I enjoy and don’t completely suck at,” he admits. 

“Did you have to take lessons as part of your ice dance career?” she asks. 

“Well for starters, in no way could my time in ice dance be considered a career, but mostly, no. I did take some dance classes during the summer camps my mom and aunts put on every year, but there wasn’t much in the way of partner dancing at those. It was mostly ballet and modern dance and I honestly pretty much hated it.” He winces as he pauses, “I did everything I could to get out of those classes, including acting like an asshole. It wasn’t cute.”

“Did you actually hate it or did you think you were supposed to hate it?” she asks. 

“Holy...” he looks at her and shakes his head. His grimace has been replaced by a look that Tessa reads as a little bit awe and a little bit sheepish. “I’m not sure that I ever let myself figure that out, but yeah. Knowing what I do now? Probably the latter, I think.”

“So you were never able to enjoy any of those summer classes?”

“Nope,” he admits. “But right about the time it became clear that my shoulder wasn’t going to heal well enough for me to continue with hockey my cousin’s ex broke up with her just after she put a huge deposit down on some ballroom dance classes.” He shrugs like he knows she can figure out the rest. And she does. 

“And you had fun there?” 

“I did. L actually ended up dating one of the instructors and he would use her as his partner more and more often, and I’d get paired with the female instructor. She was older, a bit of a task master, but I quickly learned I hated disappointing her.”

“Did you have a crush on her?” she asks. 

“Not a proper one, no.” He cocks his head and looks past Tessa’s shoulder like he’s genuinely considering the question. After a few moments he looks back at Tessa with a knowing smile. “I don’t know if you’ve caught on yet, but the older I get the more I find competence extremely attractive. Both romantically and just in the people I enjoy surrounding myself with. It’s very motivating. With Suze, I never wanted her to feel like I wasn’t focused or listening. She was just that kind of teacher.”

“She sounds amazing,” Tessa tells him with a delighted smile. If there’s something that Tessa has noticed about Scott over the last few conversations they’ve had, it’s that he tends to enjoy and thrive off being surrounded by intelligent, driven women. The way he talks about the women in his life, be they his family members or the women’s hockey team, or his dancing instructor, she’s never heard him say anything disrespectful or inappropriate about them. 

“She’s great,” he agrees. “Hopefully you’ll get to reap some of the benefits.” 

The server brings them their next course, stuffed mushrooms and chicken skewers, along with a change of wine, and they dig in with gusto. Tessa can’t help but let out a small, delighted hum when the flavors burst on her tongue. 

Once they’ve had those first few bites and all the flavors to settle, Scott asks, “What about you? You danced seriously for awhile, right? Any ballroom in there?”

“I did dance, yeah,” she answers but chooses not to elaborate beyond adding, “I didn’t get into ballroom, but my first two years of college I had a roommate from Colombia who taught me cumbia, and how to dance for fun in general really.” She laughs when she remembers just how bad she was at moving her hips at the beginning. “My training was not terribly helpful for party dancing, especially right after I had to let it go. But eventually I was able to loosen up enough to enjoy myself and stop caring what others were thinking.”

“God, I was all bravado and no actual confidence at that age,” Scott admits. 

“It’s a brutal, but kind of magical time,” Tessa agrees. “The things I’d tell that girl if I could.“

Scott gives her a half smile and places his hand on the table, palm up. Tessa hesitates for just a moment and then slides her hand over his and sighs when he turns his hand so he can lace their fingers together. “I don’t think I’d tell him much, even if I could. There were some dark times coming for that kid, but it all lead to the life I have now. And I kind of like this life.” His voice is pitched low. “It just gets better and better.” 

Tessa rubs her thumb over the back of his hand and is granted a shiver in response. She ducks her head in pleasure and then takes a sip of her wine. 

The server brings around their next plate and a new wine, which Tessa enjoys but not quite as much as the previous offerings. Maybe it’s just that, with this part of the meal she needs both hands and isn’t all that keen on letting his warm hand go. 

Which is a little out of character for her. Even when her, all too few, relationships were new and had that underlying buzz of fresh energy and sizzle, she’s never been one for lots of touching. She’s never been much of a cuddler (at least not with her sex partners; Jo and her family are a different story) but there’s a large part of Tessa that wants to drag her chair to the other side of the table for two they’re sitting at, just so she can lean into his side and hold his hand without having to have them awkwardly resting on the table between them. 

“I’m not feeling this plate as much as the last two,” Scott says as he sets down his utensils and wipes his mouth with his cloth napkin. He’s taken only a few bites of the stewed lamb and spiced rice.

“It’s...sweet?” Tessa offers in an attempt at putting her finger on why she’s not in love with it either. Tessa can get behind some sweet and savory combos, but the balance on this meat is off and the concentration of dates and cinnamon just a little too cloying. 

“Exactly,” he says. He takes one more experimenta bite and then puts his fork down. 

“The first two dishes were fantastic,” she says with a shrug. 

“And this wine is pretty fantastic,” he adds. 

“And honestly, I was sad I had to stop holding your hand,” she says as she’s the one to hold her hand out this time. 

“Glad I wasn’t the only one.” Instead of just taking it, though, he turns hers so he’s cradling her palm with his fingers and his thumb can follow the veins on the back of her hand. 

“I’ve never even been much for holding hands,” Tessa tells him. “But with you, I’ve wanted to from the start. Usually any form of PDA, even the most innocuous, makes me anxious.”

Scott’s brow furrows at that. “I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“That’s the thing,” she says, keeping her eyes trained on their joined hands and the steady rhythm of the strokes of this thumb against her skin, trying to convey just how mundane and momentous this occurrence is. “I don’t want to let go.”

“Feel free to hold on as long as you want.”

She swallows and looks up at his face and has to swallow again at the heady mix of admiration and protectiveness on his face. Fuck she’s so gone. 

And she thinks, maybe, just maybe, so is he. 

The music changes from the aimless jazz the piano player had been tinkering with to a full jazz quartet playing, “It’s Only A Paper Moon.” An older couple, a man and woman in their sixties or maybe early seventies, makes their way onto the dance floor and Tessa turns her attention to them. They’re cute, all smiles and flare. She can tell they’ve been dancing together for a long time and a tiny seed of longing sparks in her gut. 

Two more couples join them by the middle of the song. One of the couples consists of two women who are obviously skilled as well, adding in little bits of fun, a dip here, a twirl there, that has Tess smiling. The third couple, a man and woman who can’t be older than twenty, are focused and a little clumsy but everytime they make a misstep they smile sheepishly at each other and keep going. 

Tessa is mesmerized by all three couples for different reasons and doesn’t take her eyes off them until she feels a tug at her hand. When she looks up, Scott has brought her hand an inch or so from his lips and is holding it there, eyebrows raised. Tessa can’t help but suck in a sharp breath as she nods, ever so slightly. 

His lips are dry, but not too rough, when he presses them in a long, firm kiss against the back of her hand. He keeps his eyes trained on hers, even as he presses a second, short kiss against her knuckles before squeezing her hand and then standing, hands still clutched together as the song changes. “You know how to waltz?” he asks. 

“In theory,” she answers. 

“Do you want to waltz?” he asks, head cocked and eyes sparkling. That’s an altogether different question. 

“Okay,” she replies, standing. 

“How are you at following?” he asks as he guides her over to the dance floor. 

“If the lead is strong enough, I won’t fight you,” she tells him, eyes wide and teasing. 

“Excellent.” He places places his hands in the proper position and she puts her free hand on his waist, though she’s pretty sure that’s wrong, but he doesn’t correct it. 

“I’m going to move forward as you move back, okay?”

“Sure,” she answers. And then they’re dancing. It takes them a little bit to settle into the rhythm, but he makes it so easy, his posture so sure and, frankly exquisite, and his step light but clear. In no time she’s not thinking at all and simply gets to enjoy the feel of being in his arms, moving with him. 

The band transitions from the instrumental waltz to a song that Tessa is very familiar with. 

“I love this song,” she murmurs as the singer croons out the opening lines to Moon River. 

“It’s a good one,” he agrees. “Simple.”

“I spent way too many hours as a kid trying to figure out what a huckleberry friend is,” Tessa admits, shaking her head. Scott laughs softly at that. 

“Did you ever figure it out?”

“Nope. Never.”

“Was this pre-Google?”

“Actually. Yes. Haven’t really thought about it since I was 10 or 11.”

“I assume you’ll google it now when you get home?” he asks with his brows raised and she full on chuckles because of course she’s going to. 

“Maybe not right as I get home,” she responds even as she laughs. 

His brows raise higher and she licks her lips reflexively. 

Moon River ends and the band transitions into The Way You Look Tonight and the expression on Scott’s face shifts for just a second. It’s just a flicker of something intensely sultry and wanting before he visibly checks himself and clears his throat. Tessa almost asks him to go back to whatever he was thinking that made him look at her with such want, but then he smiles and says, “Ever done a foxtrot?” as he leads her in a simple pattern that she’s danced many times at weddings and such, but never really had a name for. 

“It appears I have,” she answers. 

He hums in response and holds her a little closer, pressing his temple to hers. They’re still doing proper steps, but the hold is more relaxed than what they’ve been doing and Tessa is pretty sure she would actually melt into his body if she forgot to keep herself upright. 

And then she hears it. It’s quiet, just a whisper at first, but yeah. He’s singing. 

Tessa closes her eyes and listens, feeling the way the sound rumbles slightly in his chest. It’s not spectacular but it’s nice. Really nice. 

Scott seamlessly transitions them from one song to the next, which is another of Tessa’s favorites. The singer does a decent job of crooning Fly Me to the Moon, but it’s not the singer Tessa is listening to. It’s the guy, crooning in her ear, who apparently knows every dumb word by heart. The feel of his breath against her ear is frankly killing her, which might be a good thing because then she can’t focus so much on the words he’s singing which are genuinely way too much to think about. Instead of focusing on the line that follows “in other words...” she tries to distract herself by asking a different question. 

“Do you think they intentionally went with a moon theme tonight or is it just a coincidence?”

Scott huffs in her ear but doesn’t answer as the song comes to a close. Instead he twirls her away from him and then pulls her back in, dipping her over his arm and pulling her back up sharply into his arms. 

Well shit. 

The band announces they’ll be taking a short break, Scott leads Tessa back to their table, and asks, “You ready for dessert?” 

She’s of two minds. There’s a hazelnut chocolate torte on the menu that she’d been eyeing since they got here, but really now all she wants to do is kiss him and have him kiss her and while holding hands with him and dancing in public is something she’s apparently comfortable with, she’d really rather go home to kiss him. To touch him. 

“Sort of?” she answers with another steadying breath. 

His eyes go dark as he, seemingly, reads the situation correctly. 

This time she’s the one bringing their joined hands to her lips, not breaking eye contact as kisses his palm. He hisses when she quickly darts her tongue out, just a touch, and flicks it along his life line. 

He pulls her into his side and kisses her temple as he reaches into his pocket, pulls out his wallet, and leaves more than enough cash to cover the bill and the tip, too impatient to wait for the check. 

Then he pulls back, and looks directly into her eyes and asks, “You sure?”

Tessa doesn’t sleep with people on the first date. But then, Tessa literally hasn’t had a first date in five years. This should all feel rushed, but it doesn’t. She wants him and she likes him so much. “Take me home,” she says into his ear, biting her lip when he shudders as her breath hits his skin. “I’m sure.”

The moment is intense, but then they have to get the car, and separate while he drives back to her house and she keeps expecting the thrum of excitement that’s pulsing through her to subside like it almost always does. It doesn’t. 

He takes her hand as soon as they’re both settled in the car, and she can’t stop playing with his fingers. She even dares to pull them back up to her lips when he clears his throat and says, “That should not be as distracting as it is, but I’m gonna need you to keep your mouth away from any body part of mine if you want me to get you safely home.”

She flushes in response and then settles their joined hands on the center console between them. “I’ve never really thought much about hands before.” 

Which she realizes is a strange thing to say, but fuck, she really loves his hands. And so far she’s only held them and been held by them. But she imagines things and it’s a lot. 

“I like your hands, too,” he says as he dares to look at her for a second since they’re stopped at a stoplight just a few blocks from her home. 

“They fit in yours,” is her only reply, and she’s instantly overcome with the thought that she might have said too much with that. 

“They do,” he confirms and she’s no longer worried. 

Tessa isn’t sure if she’s ever felt so much like she’s on the same page as her partner as she does in this moment. It’s maybe the best part of the night so far. Which isn’t to say that there haven’t been moments of anxiety, there have been, but every time the feeling floods her gut, he’s there with the right word or squeeze of the hand and that worry turns instead to anticipation. It’s pretty great. 

Once he’s parked outside her house, she doesn’t wait for him to come around and help her out of the car, but she does take his offered hand as they walk up the steps to her front door. She’s got the key ready, and lets them in quickly, disarming the alarm with her left hand still in his right. 

He helps her out of her jacket as she steps out of her heels, leaving them in the small closet by her door. He slips his shoes off as well, and hangs his jacket in the closet next to hers. And then they just stand there, in her entry way looking at each other, neither taking the first step, but Tessa is okay with this pause. Okay with just a second to take in this moment -- this choice. 

“You really do you look gorgeous tonight,” is what Scott says when he breaks the silence. He lifts both hands to her cradle her face, sliding his thumbs along the delicate skin at her temples. Tessa has lost count of the amount of times he’s made her shiver with the slightest touch tonight. 

“Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” He keeps his eyes on hers and asks, “Can I kiss you?”

“Please do,” she whispers back. 

His kiss is firm and dry at first, but she finds herself smiling into it which makes him smile back and then one or both of them deepen the kiss and his hands move into her hair and hers clutch at his arms as she pushes up on her toes to get as close to his mouth as she can and she’s breathing through her nose and the scent of his aftershave is overwhelming and he tastes like wine and human and the best kind of warmth and she pulls back so she can look at him again and when she does he looks back with a dazed smirk. 

And then he’s dropping kisses across her cheeks and to her eyelids and it just might make Tessa swoon, just a little. She captures his lips with hers and he backs her up against the hallway wall and she’s glad to have something to lean against because she’s pretty sure she’s never been kissed this thoroughly. He starts to kiss his way away from her mouth and she can’t help but let out a small whimper because where is he going? 

Scott laughs and buries his face in her neck but doesn’t move. Their breaths come harsh and loud in the quiet night and it’d be embarrassing if Tessa didn’t want to keep going so badly. So she moves her hands up his back and pulls him even closer to her and burrows her face into his neck and breathes him in, letting him take the minute since he seems to need it. 

After a few moments, or hours, he pulls back, once again cradling her face in his hands and making eye contact and it’s so fucking intense that she almost has to look away. 

“How do you want to do this?” he asks. 

“Hnng?” is her completely incoherent reply. 

He gives another breathless laugh and presses his forehead against her clavicle as he breathes deep. 

“I only want to do what you want to do, but we haven’t really talked about expectations and I could find myself getting carried away with you and I’d like to know from the outset what you’re hoping for, and if there’s anything you already know you aren’t wanting to do tonight. If you just want some kissing, I’m down because we’re very, very good at the kissing already, but I should probably manage my expectations a little.”

Tessa presses her lips against his hair and pulls his head up so she can look him in the eye again. “You really are good, aren’t you?”

“What?” he asks, brows furrowed. 

She shakes her head a little and answers his original question, “I’m not sure that I want intercourse, but I would very much be down for some mutual orgasms. And then maybe we see from there.”

“How are you real?” he asks, before he’s kissing her again. “Just tell me if you need me to do anything differently, okay? I just want to make you feel good.”

“You, too,” she replies against his lips and then she grabs his hand and pulls away, leading him up the stairs. 

They’re halfway up when he stops her with a tug of her hand. “Did you lock up? I’m pretty sure we didn’t lock up.”

“Wait right here,” she tells him, kissing his cheek and then running down the stairs, making sure the locks are secured and the alarm is reset.

And then she pauses, leaning back against the now secured door and taking a couple of deep breaths. When she opens her eyes, he’s watching her from where he stands, four steps up, a patient, fond look settled on his face. She’s pretty sure he’s taken this chance to catch his breath as well. 

So she takes another moment to check in with herself, make sure, with 20 feet distance, if this is really what she wants. 

And it is. She really, really wants this. Now. Tonight. With Scott Moir. 

So she smiles up at him, walks to him, takes his hand in hers and leads him up to her room. Her bedside lamp is already on so Tessa leads him to the bed and nods toward it, encouraging him to sit, so he does. And then she unties the belt at her waist, and unhooks the small hooks that actually secure the dress, and methodically opens the dress and lets it slide down her shoulders and off. She’s about to bend to pick it up, when Scott leans forward to catch it before it falls all the way to the floor, and takes care to drape it over the trunk at the foot of her bed. 

And then he holds out his hand and encourages her to stand closer. 

“Is it okay if I help with the rest?” he asks, slowly reaching out to run his hand along her flank. It skirts just below the band of her pretty, but fairly plain black satin bra and then back down to the top of her matching underwear. For a thong it’s fairly conservative, but it’s still a thong and he doesn’t look disappointed in her choice. 

“Please do.”

“How are women so fucking gorgeous? You’re stunning, Tess,” he tells her as he presses a kiss just over her solar plexus. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Just keep touching and I don’t think you’ll go wrong,” she whispers. 

He skims both hands up across her belly, and then up to cup her breasts, experimentally running his thumbs across where the cups cover her nipples. Then he catches her eyes as he slides his hands into the straps and slowly pulls them down her shoulders, before reaching behind her to unhook the bra. 

“This okay?”

“Yes,” she replies. It’s more than okay. 

He pulls a whistling breath through his teeth as he pulls the fabric away. “You are painfully pretty. And you have more freckles. Can I use my mouth?” he says in quick succession not really stopping until he asks a question. 

“I’d be bummed if you didn’t.”

“Me, too.”

And then he pulls her closer to him and kisses the tops of her breasts first and then darts his tongue out to lick over her left nipple. Fuck it’s been waaay too long since her breasts have been touched. She doesn’t tend to pay them much attention when she’s getting off on her own. Doesn’t get nearly the stimulation from touching them herself as she’s getting from his mouth. He nips gently at the other peak and she can feel the jolt in her core and she doesn’t even care if she’s whining now because this feels amazing -- more amazing than she’s remembered for sure, but maybe it’s just more amazing than it’s ever been before. 

Her hands, which have been holding onto his shoulders move to pull his head closer to her skin and she feels him huff a laugh against her. 

“We have all night, right?” he asks. 

“We do, but I want...” she can’t finish her request because she wants him to keep his mouth on her, but she wants him to touch her cunt, and she wants to touch him, too. Wants him to lose the shirt and his pants and holy shit she’s really standing here nothing but a thong and he’s still dressed but she isn’t sure she cares all that much because he’s back to kissing her and his lips are moving down her belly and she starts breathing faster as he runs his thumb against her belly ring and she feels another jolt. 

“You doing okay, T? You want me to slow down?”

“Fuck no. No slowing down.”

“Okay,” he says. 

“Except...”

“Hmm,” he asks as he nuzzles his nose from her belly button down to the low waistline of her panties and hits a spot that makes her jerk her hips up, which he then licks and nips at. 

“Fuck,” she bites out as she does her best not to stab his scalp with her nails. 

“I’d like to touch you now, if that’s okay,” he says. 

“I’m going to need you to do that, yes,” she says. 

“And then I’m going to want to eat you out cause if you taste as good as you smell it’s going to be very hard to stop.”

“That sounds fantastic. Please do that,” she replies. 

“Excellent,” he groans out, and then he’s touching her mons through the fabric and she has no clue how she’s already so damn close, but she is. 

“Just keep,” she swallows. “Keep touching.”

“Gladly.”

But first he hooks his fingers under the fabric and tugs the panties down to her ankles. “Step out? I don’t want you to trip.” He holds onto her hips as she does so, but puts his legs in between hers, prompting her to keep her legs a little wider than shoulder width apart. Then, so quickly, he leans forward runs his tongue from her entrance to her clit and enters her with one finger. 

“I was right about you tasting amazing,” he says. 

“I’m gonna come if you do that again,” she says, her hands back to clutching at his shoulders. 

“Please do,” he murmurs against her. It only takes a few more licks, his teasing finger at her entrance, and the scrape of his teeth against the hood over her clit and she’s gone. It’s not the most powerful orgasm she’s ever had, but it still takes her breath away and when she finds herself back in her body she’s slumped against him, with his arms around her and his face against her belly. She slides to the side and down onto the bed, reaching up to run her thumb against his wet lips. 

“That was fast,” is all she can think to say. 

He shrugs in response, a shy smile on his face. 

“God you’re pretty,” she tells him, pulling a loud laugh out of him. 

“Did I break you?” he asks, though he has the good grace to sound skeptical. 

“No. You’re just really fun to look at. I bet you’ll be even prettier without the shirt. And with no pants.”

“If that’s what you want,” he says as he dips his head down to kiss her neck. From this angle she can just stretch enough to reach down and cup him through his pants. 

“It’s absolutely what I want.”

“Then I guess I better get to it.”

*

They both get off a couple of times that night and Tessa isn’t at all bothered when he falls asleep wrapped around her, though her mind is still buzzing and her body still humming. It’s not even midnight when she sneaks away to the bathroom, and she feels herself beaming (fucking beaming) down at him when he lets out this cute little sound of concern as she slips away from him while he sleeps, and then burrows into her pillow and settles again. She kisses his shoulder, swipes her phone out of her purse, and then slips into her ensuite to quietly clean up. Her lips are a little swollen and red, and her hair is a mess and her eye make up has gone a little racoon-ish but her eyes themselves are shining and she’s smiling and she can’t remember being so sated, ever. 

She doesn’t hesitate when she calls her sister. 

“There’s a boy in my bed,” she tells her when she answers. Thankfully Jordan is as much a night owl as she is, at least on the weekends. 

“Thank god!” Jordan replies. “It has been way too long.”

“Shut up,” Tessa tells her, but has to bite her lip because she really is smiling way too big. 

“Never. Was it good?”

“Yes,” Tessa answers immediately. “Very.”

“I’m happy for you,” Jordan tells her. “He already sounded like a winner, but it’d be a bummer if he sucked in bed.”

“I don’t think it would have mattered, since I know I can live without it,” Tessa says with a shrug. 

“But this is better, yeah?”

“I never really got the fuss before now,” Tessa admits as she chews on her thumb. Sex has been...nice. Okay. But it had taken her years to realize that other people weren’t always exaggerating just how good it felt to them. She kind of gets it now. 

“But you do now?” Jordan asks, a little in awe at her sister’s change of perspective. 

“Starting to,” she says. 

“You’re being smart?” Jordan asks, her voice soft and kind. 

“Didn’t use a condom for oral but will definitely use one for intercourse so...eh?”

“You trust him?”

“I do,” Tessa replies softly. And maybe that’s stupid. It’s probably stupid and they’ll need to have another discussion, but fuck if she isn’t just bonkers for him. 

“Oh god. Your IUD is still in date, right?”

Tessa snorts and then winces because it’s a little loud and she doesn’t want to wake him. “Yeah. Have only had it four years and it’s a copper one, so.” 

“Condoms, Tess.”

“Yeah,” she replies. 

“Ask him for his test results. If he’s as good as he says he’ll give them to you.”

Why did she think calling her sister was a good plan again? “I’m gonna hang up now,” she tells her. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Jordan replies. Just as Tessa is gonna hang up Jordan calls out, “Hey Sam?”

“Hmm?”

“There’s a boy in your bed.”

“There is. Goodnight.” 

Tessa smiles as she takes her makeup off and brushes her teeth. She rummages through her drawers and finds a still packaged toothbrush, in bright pink, and sets it on the counter next to the toothpaste she leaves out. 

And then she slips back into her room, and slides into the bed next to him, lets herself burrow against him, drawn to his warmth. 

“You okay?” he asks. 

“I’m good,” she replies. “You?”

“I’ve never been better.”

She drops a kiss against his neck and closes her eyes. She doesn’t remember falling asleep so it must happen quick.


	2. In other words, baby, kiss me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another date in the FLY universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Essentially just going to put a disclaimer here that I haven't really written anything intended for public consumption in years and hope it's fractionally as enjoyable as what E is able to craft on her own. If it's not clear, this particular date was one I ended up taking the charge on. Creativity rarely happens in a vacuum so I won't say I wrote it on my own, but I will say it will read differently than anything we've co-authored in the past. 
> 
> A very sincere thank you to D for being a grammar aficionado and forcing me to address some things that weren't "stylistic" and were mostly just incorrect. And of course, thanks to E for being so extensive and detailed in what she writes, which inspires creativity and let's me riff with her. 
> 
> All mistakes are my own.
> 
> \- C

Scott is in the middle of reviewing his notes from his latest interview with the Minister of Sport for a profile on Special Olympics initiatives around the country he’s been working on. It’s a story he’s wanted to write for awhile, and has plans to pitch it as an option to expand into a book with his publishers next week, when a text from Tessa provides a good distraction. Since their date, he’s come to expect notifications throughout his day with little comments and silly emojis he’s not sure he understands but when he reads the text, he is positive he does not understand.

_“I don’t know how to carve a good, basic pumpkin. How am I supposed to carve a FANCY pumpkin?”_

He reads it three times to make sure he isn’t missing anything before he replies with the most neutral response he can think of, _“um… okay?”_ And he’s barely hit send before her response comes through, “Crap. Sorry, Scott. That was meant for my sister but if you have any carving tips, I’m taking them.”

Scott can’t help the smile that graces his lips which seems to be a permanent fixture whenever he is thinking about, talking to, or talking about Tessa these days. Essentially his cheeks always hurt a little lately. Taking the chance she’s free, he calls and waits for the ring.

Tessa is sitting at her desk in her office at the Knight’s training facility debating what to do about this pumpkin situation when her phone vibrates. She grabs it, seeing Scott’s name, hits answer and says, “I was kidding, please don’t feel obligated to help me with this pumpkin disaster.”

He chuckles over the line. “First, I always want to be helpful to you and second, is it already a disaster or just the possibility of a disaster?” He can hear Tessa’s soft sigh before she replies, “Probably the second, but I have complete faith in my ability to fail this situation.”

Scott smiles. “Okay, can you tell me how gourds can be causing you so much distress and how I can help?”

Tessa ducks her head to hide a bashful grin, even though no one will see it, when she hears the sincerity in his request. “I’m being dramatic. Basically the reason I can’t go out on Friday is the same reason I’m stressing about a pumpkin on the second Wednesday of October. There’s a fundraiser at Jo’s school where parents carve designer pumpkins and then they’re sold at a silent auction. Which is dumb, because carved pumpkins last like a week so they never even make it to Halloween but it’s a status thing and all the parents get competitive about it so I’ve made her dad do it the last two years.”

She trails off for a second and Scott just offers a supportive hum for her to continue. “So this year was supposed to be the same but he has an emergency business trip he can’t get out of and has apologized profusely to me five times today. It just means I get to spend tonight carving a pumpkin and hoping wine will make me a better artist.” The silence on the other end of the phone makes Tessa fidget with a puck shaped eraser on her desk, waiting for a response. It’s around 10 seconds later she realizes she can hear muffled laughter. “Scott?” A brief rustling on the line and he’s back. “I’m sorry, Tess. I didn’t want you to think I was laughing at you. I was laughing at the absurdity of a silent auction for designer carved pumpkins.”

She flings the piece of rubber down in her enthusiasm to agree. “Exactly! I just don’t understand where the idea even came from. Why can’t they just sell bad wine and random gift baskets like every other school in the area?”

At this point she is giggling along with Scott’s laughter. She can’t help it; it’s infectious. And suddenly it’s like a weight is being lifted. Her steadily increasing stress level had gone unnoticed as she worked to solve this problem. The laughter fades after a moment and Scott asks, “Is Jo going to help you with this project?”

Tessa drops her head down, allowing her hair to curtain around her. “Oh no, I wouldn’t inflict this on her. She’ll be proud and enthusiastic for the result, but tonight she’s with Greg before he leaves for his trip in the morning. He asked if he could have her a day early since he’s going to be gone over the weekend. It works out well for whatever _this_ will be.”

“I’m sure you’ll do a great job and Jo will be thrilled by it. Even if it’s a Jack-O-Lantern face, I can tell you, your kid is proud of you.” Scott’s confidence gives her a mild boost but mostly spikes her anxiety.

She holds the phone a little tighter before softly admitting, “I just don’t want to disappoint her.”

Scott turns in his chair to grab his bag and start loading up his things for the end of the day. “Not possible.” The responding bark of laughter catches him off-guard.

“I like your confidence, want to share some?”

“Sure. I’m confident you are remarkable.” He’s tucking a spare notebook into the outside of the messenger bag when he says this and immediately bites his cheek, concerned he’s revealed a little too much given the two of them have technically only had one date. When Scott called yesterday, after waiting three days because he didn’t want to overwhelm her, to ask if she was available Friday night, Tessa declined due to a school function for Jo. Disappointed but not wanting to show it, Scott tried to play it off and succeeded, he hopes, but the overly sincere compliment may just do him in. Her reply is quiet but warm.

“Thank you.”

Releasing his breath in relief and hoping she doesn’t hear it, Tessa continues before he has to say anything. “I think I’m just going to stop and pick up a pumpkin on my way home and give it my best. No point in continuing to delay the disaster.”

“Is your sister coming over to help?”

“Jordan?” Tessa puts her phone on speaker to pack up her laptop and scoffs. “No, she’s in Toronto. I just text her when there’s something I don’t want to do so she can mock me appropriately into doing it.”

He snorts. “Sounds like an excellent accountability method.” She can hear the beep of his car before the telltale quality of sound that accompanies a phone switching to bluetooth as he continues. “I mean my brothers razz me pretty well but usually I don’t volunteer things for them to tease me on.”

“Oh, absolutely. It’s more of a sister only practice. My brothers would just tell me to leave it uncarved and slap a name tag that says “God” on it because apparently all their references are stuck in the 90s.” She grabs her phone off speaker, waves goodbye to the two people in the main office and heads out to her car as well. “Are you heading home?”

Scott isn’t surprised that she noticed him getting into his car but he definitely takes a little longer than he should to answer, “Uh, just have some errands to run. I was working on transcribing an interview and remembered I wanted to hit the shops before they closed.”

Tessa immediately regrets monopolizing his time. “I’m sorry to have interrupted.”

She barely gets a chance to finish the sentence before he is rushing to reassure her. “It’s never an interruption to get to chat with you, Tess. I needed the distraction. It wasn’t a particularly riveting interview even if I’m really invested in the topic.”

She perks up at this. “Oh? Do I get a tease at what Scott Moir will be publishing in the near future?”

Scott can’t help the flutter in his chest when she engages with him about his work, wondering briefly if she finds it attractive that he’s a writer. _Don’t be an idiot, Scott, she’s just thoughtful._ “Absolutely! But I want to work on it in terms of direction before I get your thoughts on it. Maybe we can grab coffee next week and I can pick your brain for suggestions.” She sighs in an overly dramatic way he can’t help but find adorable and relents.

“I suppose that could work. And I really should let you get your errands done. I’m actually going to head into the store to grab a pumpkin now and then head home. I’ll be sure to text you a picture of the finished result.”

Scott pulls up to a stop at the busy intersection before the highway and waits out the signal before replying. “You can call me too, if you need to brainstorm.”

“Careful, Moir. I might take you up on that offer.”

Scott smiles to himself, “Counting on it, Virtch.”

***

Three hours later, Tessa is glaring at the most symmetrical pumpkin she was able to find at the grocery store closest to work where it sits across the dining room table from her. The fuzzy eyebrows she gave it with a dry erase marker in the first hour of the project look like lazy caterpillars to her now and it’s with that realization she decides it’s time for a break.

“Wine.” She stands from her perch, briefly stretching before resettling the maroon cami over loose yoga pants she changed into when she got home, and moves toward the adjacent kitchen, continuing to mutter to herself, “I need wine. I promised myself wine.” The clink of glass being placed on the granite countertop of the center island is accompanied by a ghoulishly cartoon laugh, signalling the doorbell. Pausing her debate on red versus white for the evening, she pockets her phone and moves to the front door, trying to remember if she ordered any packages lately.

Once at the front door, she takes a look through the peephole and is startled by who she sees illuminated in the warm porch light and nearly faded dusk but does nothing to mute the smile on her face when she opens the door, “Scott?”

His answering smile and shrug proceed a hasty, “I know I should have called but I wanted to surprise you and since you mentioned Jo would be with her dad, I thought you would be okay with that?”

She can read the slight anxiety under his hopefully raised eyebrows and rushes to nod and open the door wider, “Of course! It’s absolutely a highlight to break up the evening. Please come in!” Tessa catches the faint scent of some sort of cologne, woodsy and clean, clinging to his Adidas track jacket as he passes by before she notices he has a hockey gear bag, that appears full, in addition to a paper grocery bag and his normal messenger bag she’s seen with him at the rink and vaguely recalls from the book signing. “Can I help you with anything?”

Scott shakes his head, gesturing for her to lead the way back into the house once she’s closed and locked the door behind him. “Nope, I got it. It’s kind of part of the surprise.”

“Oh? Now I’m intrigued.” Tessa walks back toward the fully lit kitchen, bypassing the dining room for the moment. “In addition to your company, I get gifts?”

“Well, I don’t know if they’re gifts, so much as offerings?” Scott hedges as he places the grocery bag on the island, adjacent to her empty wine glass and gingerly puts down the duffle on the floor between them.

Once he’s settled the awkward bulk, he reaches into the grocery bag to retrieve a bouquet of flowers that Tessa can only describe as beautifully adorable. In addition to lovely autumn blooms of different shades, the base is wrapped in paper, and tied with twine which has tiny decorative pumpkin charms spaced along the braiding.

“Oh Scott.” Tessa reaches out to delicately inspect the petals but immediately moves to the charms when they catch her eye. His hand briefly tightens on the stem of the bouquet when her fingers graze his knuckles before extending the entire gift for her inspection. “They’re beautiful!”

He shrugs once she’s taken them from him, “The florist next to the hardware store had them on display and I couldn’t resist. I thought the charms might be a fun Halloween decoration.”

Grabbing an empty vase from the cupboard near the sink, Tessa places the flowers into it and then moves the display to the little windowsill above the sink before turning back to him. She knows she’s essentially beaming at him but his responding look of admiration merely encourages her that it’s okay. Clearing her throat to break the tension, she tells him, “I love them.”

Scott smiles and runs his hand through his already messy locks before he swings his satchel in front of him to open and withdraw a bottle of wine, placing it next to the neglected glass. “This is wine, because I took a gamble and assumed we might need it.”

She reaches for the bottle and glances at the label, realizing she’s pretty sure it’s one they had on their date last weekend that they both enjoyed, “It’s like you read my mind. I was just about to open a bottle.” Tessa moves to grab another glass from the cupboard and when she turns back, she finds Scott kneeling next to the duffle, unzipped and rummaging through to withdraw two large, oblong shaped pumpkins under each arm. “Scott, you didn’t have to get pumpkins!”

He grins at her and tilts his head, “I promise, Tess, everything I do tonight is because I want to.” Her quirked eyebrow has him quickly adding, “I want to _help_ you. I mean, with pumpkins.” Scott places the pumpkins on the island then returns to digging in the duffle, breaking eye contact but she notes the slight reddish tinge to his ears from where he’s crouched, before he turns back and stands with a box of mini LED lights and what appears to be a small hand drill, also still boxed.

“Uh, Scott, I don’t think re-enacting an episode of Dexter is on my agenda for the evening.” Tessa nods to what remains in the bag, a roll of plastic sheeting and various sizes of knives and scraping implements. His face blanches a bit before he notes the teasing smile on her lips.

He smiles back at her and finishes unloading everything onto the counter, “I guess we’ll just have to settle for carving a kickass fancy pumpkin,” he waves the box of LEDs, “Emphasis on fancy.”

At this, Tessa can’t help herself, moving to his side and giving him a hug, “Thank you.”

She must fail to hide the actual relief she feels to have some support in this endeavor because his responding hug is tighter than she expects and he places a kiss on the top of her head before leaning back to meet her gaze, “Of course. I’m glad I knew you had this on your plate.”

Not trusting her voice, Tessa leans back in for one last squeeze before stepping back, moving around the island, and digging out a wine opener. “I mean I can confidently say at this point, this is the best result a wrong number text has ever gotten me. And for the record, I’d still say that even if you arrived without any crafting supplies.” Scott moves the supplies to one end of the island but she notices a slight flush at his neck, joining his pink ears, and she can’t help adding, “I’m really happy you’re here. If that wasn’t clear.”

“I’m happy I’m here too.” Reaching out to pour the wine into the glasses for them, he uses his other hand to give hers a squeeze. “Let’s figure out this horrific form of stepford torture and then maybe we can watch a movie or something if you’re up for it?”

She brightens at the suggestion and the hand holding, freeing one of hers to take a drink from the glass in front of her. Tessa looks over at him and smirks, “Or we could skip the pumpkin and just Netflix and chill.”

Scott’s eyebrows shoot up and he coughs on the sip of wine he’s in the middle of taking at this suggestion. “Uh, warn a guy, Tess.” She laughs so hard she has to put her glass down and hold the edge of the counter. Scott just watches Tessa laugh freely, loving knowing he was able to make her feel that way, and waits until she is able to catch her breath before he continues. “I think we should definitely pumpkin first. That’s why I came over and I like to check things off my to-do lists.” He tilts his head at her, “Remember, I bonded with your daughter over that?”

At the mention of Jo, Tessa looks at the clock on the oven across from her. “Oh shit, I need to call Jo to say goodnight.”

Scott immediately nods and turns to the pumpkins, “You do that and I can start prepping things here.” He takes the plastic sheeting out and begins measuring the end of the island with it. Tessa reaches out to help him and when he starts to object she waves him off. Instead she holds it to the counter top as he cuts the section free.

Once that’s done, she grabs her phone from her pocket and hits speed dial on Greg’s number, puts the call on speaker, and places her phone next to the taller of Scott’s two pumpkins. The ringing tone ends abruptly with a, “Mom!”

Tessa laughs, “Hey Bug, you’re on speaker phone. Scott is here helping me with our pumpkin for Friday.” Tessa is completely fine talking to her daughter with Scott listening in but doesn’t want Jo to not know she has an audience and her reply clearly indicates this was the right decision.

“Oh! Hi, Scott! I’m at my dad’s but I’m glad you’re home helping my mom. She isn’t big on carving pumpkins.”

Scott laughs but before he can answer Tessa interrupts with, “Hey! We carve pumpkins every year, Jo!” There’s a jostle on Jo’s end of the line, likely the sound of her daughter flopping backwards on her bed, which is a common occurrence for them when she’s exasperated with her mother.

“We do, but you just help me with mine and always leave yours plain.”

Tessa smile drops a fraction and studiously avoids Scott’s gaze before she asks lightly, “Do you not like me helping with yours?”

Jo sighs, “No! I love that you help me. It’s just funny how you like to have a plain pumpkin when we could do TWO pumpkins.”

This response clearly brightens Tessa’s mood and Scott is glad Jo is such an enthusiastic kid. She reaches for her phone and says, “Well, I think that’s some A+ logic, Bug. Maybe this year we can give it a try?”

“That would be awesome, Mom! I was talking to dad tonight about what we’re going to do for our pumpkins and we picked Harry Potter!”

Tessa’s drops her head into her free hand and begins shaking it back and forth, but her voice betrays no distress when she asks, “Please tell me your dad hasn’t started reading those books to you yet.”

Jo clearly covers the phone with her hand and there is a muffled conversation on her end before it comes back to, who Scott assumes is, Greg on the line, “Tess, I promise I haven’t read or let her watch anything Harry Potter. She’s making me tell you so you don’t “shoot the messenger”.” He asks on his side of the conversation, “Did you hear that at school or hockey?” A pause and then, “Well, your teammates are right that it’s fun to say, but it means blaming the person who told you information for the information even if they didn’t have any control over it. I don’t want you thinking your mom or I would blame you for any miscommunication between the two of us.”

Another muffled reply and Tessa takes a large drink from her wine before Greg finally comes back to her. “Well that’s handled, but yeah, we’re doing Harry Potter because she got a sticker book from Marianne’s mom with Harry Potter stickers and she thinks they’re cool. Are you good with that?”

Tessa nods even if Greg can’t see her, “Yep! I know we agreed to wait on Harry Potter until she’s a little older so I just wanted to make sure that hadn’t changed. The pumpkins sound like they’ll be a lot of fun though.” Scott moves the pumpkin closest to him over onto the plastic and begins sketching on it with a Sharpie. Tessa can’t see what he’s drawing but she’s immediately distracted by the permanence of the action.

“Oh yeah, they’ll be fun to do once I’m home again. I’m going to give Jo the phone back and let you wrap up. She still has to brush her teeth.”

“Have a safe trip and I’ll email you about next week.” She one arms the pumpkin near her to the end of the island and glances over at Scott. He does a silent, faux clap for her and she rolls her eyes right as Jo’s voice comes back on the line, “Mom?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Is Scott still there?”

Tessa leans over to place the phone between them and picks up a stencil from the pile Scott mysteriously produced when she wasn’t looking and he answers for her, “Yep, Jo, I’m still here. What’s up?”

“Oh good! I’m glad you’re staying even though it’s pretty late for a school night.”

Scott catches Tessa’s eye and she just shrugs, unperturbed, while he can distinctly hear a masculine chuckle through the speaker. “You’re right, it is pretty late for a school night but this is an important project so it deserves a one time exception. Are you all ready for bed?” Jo sighs in a way that distinctly reminds him of Tessa, even if he’s never heard her make that particular sound before.

“No. I have to brush my teeth. Can you have my mom send a picture of the pumpkin when it’s done?”

Tessa swaps out the stencil she was gauging on her pumpkin while replying, “I’ll remember, Jo. Now go brush your teeth and let your dad go to bed. He has an early flight in the morning.”

Jo’s reply is muttered through a yawn. “Fine.”

Tessa bites the corner of her mouth, distractedly shoving a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. “I love you, Bug. See you at pick-up tomorrow afternoon.”

“Love you too, Mom! Bye, Scott!”

Scott smiles at the phone before adding his own goodnight to the mix. There’s a brief silence once the conversation ends but it’s full of lingering warmth and amusement that makes Scott feel very content. He resumes his Sharpie marking, dashing out distances and doesn’t notice until Tessa is leaning into his side to look at what he’s doing that she’s moved.

“Well that looks impressive.” She wraps an arm around Scott’s arm that’s extended to stabilize the pumpkin while he sketches and leans up to kiss behind his ear on his neck. It tickles and causes him to jerk a dash into a full line. “Whoops.” Is her only reply before she rests her chin on his shoulder and after waiting a few more seconds he resumes the pattern, only to have her kiss him again, along his jawline this time and the line jags across half the gourd so he places the marker down and turns to face her.

The look on Tessa’s face is entirely too unrepentant. In fact Scott would be confident enough to say she looks pleased with herself, so he loops his arms around her, hands interlacing at the small of her back, “Can I help you with something, Dr. Virtue?”

Tessa rests her hands on his shoulders while tilting her head up to meet his gaze. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your focus but if you wanted, I could definitely go for some making out.” Scott squeezes her in a hug and drops his forehead to her collarbone, groaning quietly and she will admit to herself that his obvious interest in the offer sparks some pride in her.

“We have a pumpkin to carve, Tess.”

She combs her fingers through his hair near the nape of his neck and shakes her head, “No, I have a pumpkin to carve. You have an offer to make out with me.”

At this, Scott places a quick kiss to the base of her throat and steps back, “Nope. Trust me, I’m tempted, more than tempted but I’m here to help you do something you don’t want to do and then leave you to your evening.” She must have a truly appalled look on her face when he says this because he starts to laugh and holds his hands out between them, “You. Just stay at least a foot away from me and we’ll manage to get this done.”

A wicked grin appears on her lips and Scott is suddenly very nervous, “Uh, right, so pumpkin planning-”

Tessa takes a small step, bridging the gap to him, “What happens if I don’t stay away from you?” The cap of the Sharpie flies halfway across the kitchen, skittering toward the entry to the dining room, completely ignored by Scott who is staring at his pumpkin before fiddling with his watch on his wrist, barely registering the beep it emits and then he’s turning, taking her in a loose hold and slanting his mouth over hers.

_Success!_ Tessa thinks for the first few seconds before getting lost in the kiss and how Scott is cradling her face with one of his hands while the other firmly holds her at the waist. Just when she’s reaching the point of needing a break to catch her breath she hears a faint beeping and Scott is again stepping back from her. She can’t hide the mild outrage in her voice when she calls him out. “You’ve got to be kidding! You set a timer?”

Scott tenses and grins uncertainly at her while silencing the alarm on his watch. “I didn’t want to get sidetracked from the pumpkin.”

Tessa turns to the island, folding her arms on the cool granite and drops her head down onto them, ignoring him while she collects herself, “Okay, I’m clearly reading this wrong. And that’s not fair to either of us.” She turns her head so she can look over at him, still not moving from where he stands next to her but also making no move towards her either, before continuing, “I’m asking this seriously, did you really just come over to help me carve a pumpkin?”

Scott’s shoulders slump a little and he nervously fidgets with his thumb, “Yes. I just wanted to be helpful, I’m sorry if it seemed like I was here for something more than that.” Tessa starts to worry he’s going to make his cuticle bleed at how roughly he’s picking at it. “I can just go. That’s totally fine. Please use anything you need and the pumpkins are obviously good if you need to practice something first. And I’ll just text you.”

Scott doesn’t see her smile because he’s sweeping the kitchen for things he might need to clean up and only stops when she reaches out and covers his hand with her own. His gaze jerks back to hers and relaxes fractionally when Tessa tugs him toward her. She stands up straight and holds his hands to enforce her next words. “I’m sorry. I misread the situation entirely on my own. You did nothing but be amazingly wonderful and thoughtful and an excellent kisser.”

The last part causes a flash of a smile on Scott’s face but he still seems to have some apprehension in his eyes so she continues. “I would be very happy to have your help on this project I don’t want to do and think is stupid but need to do and should try my best at anyway.” She pauses to give his hands a squeeze. “Is that something you’d still like to do with me even though I made you feel uncomfortable by accosting you in my kitchen?”

Once she’s finished, Scott relaxes completely and frees a hand to give her hip a squeeze. “I’d love to. And for the record, I _really_ love kissing you.” He chuckles and ducks his head to give her a quick peck on the lips. “A lot. I just wanted to be helpful to you, instead of one more thing you have to find time for in your busy schedule.” He leans in, whispering conspiratorially to her. “And I doubt Nicole’s mentioned this but I’ve won the Moir Family Pumpkin Carving Contest four years in a row.”

Tessa matches his playful, hushed tone in response, “Oh really? Well in that case can you just carve the pumpkin and I’ll bring you refreshments?” He laughs and pulls her into his side, turning to look over the pumpkin he’s already marked up and the whole mood is lighter, more youthful, and it makes Tessa realize it’s been a long time since fun was the main expectation of an evening not involving family. “I’m serious. I’m not above delegating this task.”

He shakes his head and begins tracing the design. “Oh no, you’re going to be my apprentice so that next year you can volunteer to do this for Greg.” Tessa pinches the flesh just below his ribs in warning. “Or you know, these techniques can be used when you carve with Jo later in the month.”

“Much better suggestion, Moir.”

“Anyway, here’s what I was thinking and you can tell me if it’s good enough for the Stepford club.” Scott then proceeds to outline the meandering swirls that cover the entire pumpkin without overlapping or becoming messy. The clean lines and accent points for the LED lights to shine through all sound like the perfect decoration for a porch but it’s when Scott says, “It just seemed like it would suit you,” as his final justification for the choice is when Tessa decides she will be buying her own pumpkin back on Friday.

“I love it. How do we make that happen?” Tessa grabs a knife that looks like an acceptable tool for cutting the top open and Scott nods to her.

Scott grabs a different color marker and traces a circle further outside the rim of the pumpkin than she traditionally does but trusts his experience, “If you can cut this all the way through, I’ll get a bowl and trash bag ready for the guts. Or I can cut it and you can do that, totally up to you.” His smile is genuine and she really wants to kiss him again but forces herself to focus.

“I think I feel like cutting something.” Scott can’t help the laugh that erupts at her expressed desire for destruction but can assume she’s frustrated for the same reasons he is. He really wants to kiss her but the pumpkin needs to be carved so Tessa motions to a cupboard across from them, near the entrance to the dining room. “There’s all purpose large bowls down over there that I usually use for crafting projects with Jo if you want to grab a few.”

Moving over to the indicated cupboard, Scott tosses over his shoulder, “We can try and save the seeds. I have a fun way of making them as a snack, if you don’t mind while we carve.”

Tessa stabs the knife at a slightly offset downward angle when sticking it into the pumpkin and starts working it methodically back and forth, focused on the force she’s exerting and where the blade is pointed. “That sounds great. I love roasted pumpkin seeds.” Scott rejoins her at the island, briefly checking her technique to make sure there isn’t something he could be doing to help her in the cutting before prepping the bowl for pumpkin innards.

“It’s something my mom always did for my brothers and me growing up, so I feel weird just tossing the seeds if they can be saved. Like it’s totally part of the process of carving a pumpkin.” Scott grabs the painter’s tape he got when he bought the drill that definitely was not laying around in his garage, but Tessa would feel bad knowing he bought power tools to help her so he won’t be volunteering that information. Tearing off a piece, he secures the trash bag liner for the bowl right as Tessa finishes her circle around the top of the pumpkin.

Tessa uses her non-dominant hand to lift the top, cutting the strings emerging from the interior to have a clean lid, then setting is down on the island. “I completely relate to that. It was my mom’s contribution to the process too since by the time I was carving pumpkins my brothers were more than old enough to help me and make sure I didn’t lose a finger.”

Admiring her technique with the lid and near circular top, instead of the easier hexagonal option, Scott reaches his arm into the interior of the gourd to begin pulling out the loose combination of strings, seeds and pumpkin muck. Tessa eyes his forearm, appreciating the tensing of the muscles there before quickly diverting her attention to the task of separating seeds from guts while Scott continues to pull more free before switching to scraping the insides smooth. The process takes several minutes and in that time they work in companionable silence but when it comes time to make the pumpkin seeds, Tessa finishes rinsing her hands and reaches for her phone.

“Do you mind a little music? I usually have something on if I’m home, just in the background for Jo and me.”

Scott has taken over her spot at the sink and nods. “Go for it. I often work in silence since music can draw my focus when writing but anything with my hands is good to have a soundtrack to.”

Tessa is staring at her phone but Scott catches the brief smirk that crosses her features at his remark about his hands before she murmurs a quick, “Noted.” The opening notes of Purple Rain enter the kitchen over a small speaker under the microwave and Scott quirks an eyebrow at her, “I usually play instrumental music when Jo is home so I hope you don’t mind a little more of the older fun stuff.”

“Not at all, just wasn’t expecting it, but who can say no to Prince?”

She nods as he finishes rinsing both the pumpkin seeds and his hands. “Completely agree. You need anything?”

“Do you have a small saucepan I can use?”

Over the next hour, Scott finishes making the pumpkin seeds in between demonstrating carving techniques with the drill. They are able to bore out all the necessary holes for the LEDs with minimal effort and Tessa finds herself happily munching on the warm snack while Scott finishes the detail work with more basic carving tools.

“I’m just going to admit I find it incredibly attractive how good you are at finishing this project. Distractions aside, I think this is the fastest pumpkin carving experience I’ve ever had.”

Scott looks over at where she’s leaning on the island, small flecks of rind attached to her wrist where it escaped several hand rinses, and winks. “Well you know, it’s all a clever ploy to seduce you. Be semi-professional at children’s crafts and feed you extremely salty snack food with red wine.”

She snorts and it’s adorable to Scott, and he can admit he’s a goner, even if it’s only to himself. “In case it wasn’t obvious when I accosted you earlier, we’re there on the seduction front.”

He laughs and tilts his head in a nod of agreement. “Good to know.” He swaps tools and twists the pumpkin halfway around, checking for areas in need of a touch up. “Since I know you’re busy this weekend I was wondering what you had planned for next week?”

Tessa grabs her phone to pull up her calendar. “Well I’ll have Jo through Wednesday again, but I have to go to Toronto for the day and overnight on Tuesday so probably won’t even have any time during the day until Thursday.”

Scott perks up a little at this information and tries for casual when he says, “You’ll be in Toronto on Tuesday? I have some meetings with publishers that day too. Do you mind if I ask what hotel you’ll be staying at? I just found out my reservation fell through so that was next on my to-do list after this tonight.”

The wine may have hit in the last twenty minutes and that’s the explanation she’s sticking to when Tessa says. “That’s silly. Just stay with me. It’s only for one night.”

The divet Scott digs into the pumpkin is twice as large as the others but he’ll maintain it’s an artistic choice as he carefully places the tools down to be able to devote his full attention to her while they’re talking. “Are you sure? I can find my own hotel room, Tess. It’s Toronto, there’s hundreds of hotels.” Her posture shifts a little at this but it is clear she understands his intent is to take any pressure off of the situation, not a lack of interest.

“I think it would be fine if you want to stay with me. Is it okay that I’m assuming we can meet for a date that night?” She toys with the stem of her wine glass but holds his gaze while asking, wanting to be as clear and open as they’ve been in the past.

“Fuck yes.” Scott jerks and his eyebrows shoot up at the intensity of his reply, but it was honest at least, so he expands. “What I meant was absolutely. I’d love to see you in Toronto after my meetings and whenever you are free.”

She nods and continues. “And you’ll be okay with not having any expectations attached to staying with me, aside from the fact that I really enjoyed getting to cuddle with you last time?” The last part of the statement has a tiny bit of vulnerability entering her voice that makes Scott want to reach out and hold her, so he does.

With his arms wrapped around her torso and her head tucked firmly under his chin, lips on his collarbone through his shirt, he tells her, “Yes. If all we did was meet up and cuddle while watching shitty hotel cable and order room service, I’d still rank it in my top five best dates.”

Her response is muffled but he hears her just fine. “I’ll remember that after I’ve been in heels for 12 hours.” Tilting back to look at him while he tucks a few loose strands of hair behind her ear, she asks, “So you’ll stay in my bed that night?”

Scott’s smile radiates all the way to crinkle the skin around his eyes when he replies. “I’d love to.”

After that the two make quick work of putting in the lights, plunging the kitchen into darkness to evaluate the final product and agree it’s an excellent pumpkin, no other attempts needed. After a brief debate, Tessa convinces Scott to leave what little mess they didn’t clean as they worked and join her on the couch for some Netflix to unwind. She falls asleep five minutes into an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine they’ve both seen and only wakes up when the credits are rolling to Scott giving her a kiss on the forehead.

“I’m going to head out. Can you lock up after me?”

She rubs her eyes briefly and then takes his offered hand to help her peel away from the too comfortable couch cushions she’s been enveloped in. “Sure. Thank you again for all your help, Scott. I’m sorry I fell asleep on you.”

He smiles and waves her off. “Everything about tonight was my pleasure. I’ll text you tomorrow to get the details about Toronto. Have a great time on Friday night.”

They reach the door and she hugs him. He doesn’t hesitate to return the gesture and they pull back for a chaste kiss before he turns to grab the considerably lighter bags he entered with and heads out into the night. Tessa finds herself leaning against the door, watching him load up with a fond look on her face before he turns back to say, “Go back inside, Tess. Get some sleep.”

“Text me when you’re home.”

Scott climbs into his truck and heads down the street. It’s only a few minutes into his drive before he gets an appalled text from her thanking him for cleaning the kitchen before he left while also demanding he never let her sleep through cleaning again.

Tessa is crawling into bed when her text gets a simple, _“I’m home. Sleep well.”_


	3. all I worship and adore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back at the wheel for this chapter and hope y'all enjoy their time in Toronto. I had a genuine blast writing it! 
> 
> Thanks to C for the encouragement and for looking over the chapter to make sure it didn't suck. All remaining mistakes are absolutely mine. 
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think, yeah?

The Virtue siblings rarely get a chance to all be together outside of holidays and birthdays, so they’re all a little bummed when Casey has to beg off their Tuesday morning brunch in Toronto, which they had planned when they realized three of the four of them would already be in the city. 

She’s five minutes early, but Kevin and Jordan are there sitting at their table when Tessa arrives. Because of course they are. 

“Color me shocked that you are both insanely early,” she says by way of greeting as she walks up. 

Kevin turns in his seat, a big smile on his face when he sees her. He stands and pulls her into an excellent hug and Tessa lets herself hold onto him for a few moments. There’s something special and soothing about the hugs her brothers give her that takes her back to being a happy little kid. She squeezes him an extra time before letting go and turning to Jordan. They hug more quickly, but just as fierce. They see each other more often than either of them see the boys, even though Jordan and Kevin both live in Toronto and Tessa and Casey live in London. 

“Is Jo as excited to spend time with mom as mom is to spend time with Jo?” Kevin asks as they settle into their seats. None of them reach for the menus -- it’s far from their first time at the cafe and all three of them have they’ve known what they wanted since choosing this place. 

“She is. She fell asleep last night talking about what colors she’d get when they get their nails done this afternoon. Pretty sure she almost had a heart attack from glee when I reminded her she doesn’t really have to choose just one if she doesn’t want to.”

“Rainbow nails it is,” Jordan says with a nod. “If only lawyers could get away with rainbow nails,” she muses as she looks down at her sedate french manicure. 

The waiter brings them a round of waters and drinks -- a mimosa for her and Caesars for them -- which her siblings ordered before she got here. They place their food orders quickly and then Tessa picks the conversation back up where they left off. 

“Next time we’re out at the cottage we can make that happen,” she says. 

Kevin rolls his eyes and gives a long suffering sigh. “Please don’t get rainbow nails before we go to the cottage,” he begs. “They’ll drive you batshit and no one needs to hear you whining about a regrettable manicure. Go with candy apple red. It makes you happy every damn time.”

He’s not wrong. That’s one of Tessa’s favorite things about her brother: he can be gruff at times, a little taciturn and his humor is often biting, but he pays attention and he loves fiercely. 

Jordan makes a face at him, but shrugs instead of replying because she knows he’s right, too. Instead she turns to Tess and asks, “How’s the boy in your bed thing going?”

Tessa shoots a look at Jordan and then looks at Kevin, expecting some form of disapproval but he just raises his eyebrows at her and asks, “Yes. How _is_ the boy in your bed thing going?”

When they were all younger, both brothers avoided any conversation that involved Tessa or Jordan and any hint of sex, but that shifted sometime around the time Tessa got pregnant with Jo. She still isn’t sure if it’s just that they were all adults by then, or if Tessa becoming a mother gave them the ability to see that they were all adults. She’s grateful for it either way. 

That said, she will likely always have that initial worry that her brothers will be awkward or gross about her romantic life like they were when she was younger. It certainly hasn’t helped that there have been few opportunities over the years to have conversations about her relationships, given how only one quasi-boyfriend since Greg had ever made it to the point that she’d talk to her family about him at all. 

“He helped me carve a pumpkin for a fundraiser,” Tessa tells them as she pulls out her phone and scrolls to the pictures of their creation. 

“Please tell me that’s not a euphemism,” Jordan says. 

“Oh, God. No. I wish, but no,” Tessa huffs out, spending half a second to figure out how it’d work as a euphemism before shuddering and giving up. 

Kevin looks at the picture of the carved pumpkin and squints at it, a curious look on his face, then passes it to Jordan who hums to herself and says, “You totally bought it at the auction yourself, didn’t you?”

“How did --”

“It’s so you, Sam,” Kevin says, that contemplative look still on his face. “Did you design it or did he?”

“He did.”

“Nice,” Kevin says with a nod of approval before taking another sip of his Caesar. God. Tessa even hates watching people drink those much less having one herself. 

Their food comes then -- french toast with berries and a side of turkey bacon for Tessa, eggs benedict for Jordan and a waffle for Kevin -- and a content, almost sleepy quiet settles between them as they dig into their food. After a few satisfying bites, Tessa asks Kevin how work is going and the conversation continues, though thankfully less focused on Tessa. 

As the meal progresses, Tessa is happier and happier to be in the presence of two of her favorite people. She has always loved the way the two middle Virtue children tend to feed off each others’ energy, getting funnier and wittier, if a little meaner, as they find their footing around each other again. It never takes long, but when they start in on each other, and then gang up together and go in on how fucking awful Ford is, or how fucked one of their cases has been, or what god-awful thing their childhood neighboor down the street decorated her lawn with this time, Tessa finds herself riveted as she watches them crack each other up. 

They’re in the middle of a more serious conversation about something Kevin’s potential mother-in-law has said about his potential future wife, when Tessa gets a text from Scott. 

_ **Morning Sunshine!** _

It accompanies a picture of him squinting at the bright, if weak, winter light of a late fall morning. 

“Oh Lord, that’s got to be the boy,” Jordan says, her voice laced with faux disgust. 

Tessa ignores her as she texts back a picture of her demolished french toast and her hand around an almost empty misosa.

Kevin looks at her with that contemplative look on his face again, so Tessa looks back, as open as she’s willing to be and asks, “What?”

“He’s good to you?”

“He is.”

“And from what I’ve gathered, he’s good to Jo? She knows him, too?”

Tessa can’t help the small smile that blossoms on her face when she thinks about the interactions Jo and Scott have had. “He’s so good with her. Treats her like a person rather than a kid, but still appropriately.”

“But you’re not only into him because of how he is with Jo, right?” he asks, head cocked and genuine concern in his eyes. 

“Oh trust me,” Jordan cuts in. “Sam likes him plenty for what he can do for her.”

Kevin barely pauses to roll his eyes at Jordan but doesn’t stop looking at Tessa. 

“He’s good to me and he’s good for me,” is what Tessa decides to tell him. 

“Excellent,” Kevin says as he sits back in his chair. “You’re always so content and sure on your own and I don’t know that I ever expected you to find anyone who was worth risking that for. If you’ve decided he is, then I’m rooting for you, just like always.”

When Kevin decides to be sweet and sincere, Tessa still gets that little bubble of happiness that she’d get when he’d play with her or compliment her when she was little. She doubts that will ever go away. 

The topic switches again, this time to their mom and what they think of her “friend” who she’s been talking about more and more the last few months. The consensus is that she’ll probably never make it a serious relationship, but if she’s happy, they’re happy. 

All too soon it’s time to ask for the check so Jordan can get to her late start at work and Kevin can get to the dental appointment he scheduled when he knew he’d already be taking the morning off for their brunch. Tessa is stacking the plates neatly to make the busser’s job easier (and doing it the proper way so it doesn’t actually make their job more difficult) when she sees Jordan pick up Tessa’s purse and rifle through it. Jordan’s brow creases and then Jordan reaches into her own bag and pulls out a not-so-discreet fistful of condoms, and shoves them into Tessa’s purse. 

“What the hell, Jord?” Tessa hisses, torn between mortified by her sister’s behavior and finding it stupidly hilarious. 

“Just making sure you keep your promise to use them this time. Which, since you didn’t have any in your own purse...” Jordan gives Tessa a playful glare, that has just a hint of serious bite to it. 

“For fuck’s sake Jordan, they’re in my overnight bag, you weirdo,” Tessa tells her, as she takes her purse back. 

“We love Jo, Sam,” Kevin says with a sly grin, “And you make cute kids, but STIs suck and you don’t need another surprise kid.” 

“I have it covered,” she starts before realizing she made a stupid pun. “So to speak.”

Kevin snorts and Tessa is proud as always that she’s managed to make him laugh. 

“Did you get his test results?” Jordan asks, an exaggeratedly skeptical look on her face. Tessa knows she’s hamming it up, but that she’s also genuinely curious. 

“He emailed them to me on Saturday and I sent him mine the next day,” Tessa answers with her own huff. “Anymore incredibly intrusive questions you need to ask in our favorite brunch place?”

Jordan cocks her head to the side and touches her lips with her fingertips like she’s thinking it though. “Nope, I’m good.” 

Tessa rolls her eyes and is about to retort when they’re interrupted by the bussers clearing the table and the server coming to collect their payment and then, all too soon, and despite their inappropriate behavior, it’s time to hug and say goodbye till the next time. 

Jordan has to run for her first meeting of the morning so she’s quick with hugs and a whispered, “Let me know how it goes,” before she dashes off toward the TTC entrance half a block away. 

“Tomorrow morning,” Tessa calls after her. 

Jordan waves her off without looking back and Tessa rolls her eyes then turns to her brother. 

“I’m glad you could come,” she tells him as he pulls her into a hug. 

He drops a quick, affectionate kiss to the top of her head and then pulls back, “Anytime.”

“Good luck at the dentist,” she tells him with an overly cheerful, bordering on maniacal smile. 

“Yeah, yeah,” he answers. “Good luck with your date tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she mimics. 

“Really,” he says as he cocks his head and pins her with a stare. “I hope he’s everything you hope he is.”

“Me, too.”

And then she hugs him one more time and turns and walks the six blocks to her seminar. 

*

Tessa prides herself on her ability to stay in the moment, and has cultivated a practice of mindfulness that is excellent at keeping her engaged during some extremely dull conversations, but today’s continuing ed seminar is mind numbing. Unlike many of her colleagues, she genuinely tends to enjoy attending these sort of classes; she finds the reminders helpful and when taught well, they can give a new perspective on some of the tiredest concepts. 

This is not one of those classes. The instructor is essentially reading off a PowerPoint, is presenting information that is at least a decade out of date, and therefore even further behind on the research. Add to that, she’s checked the title and summary on the front of the handout twice to reread the topic description and sure enough, it still says “A deeper dive into an age old question” yet the content two hours into the four hour class couldn’t even be considered a brief introduction to the topic, much less a deep dive. 

And while she’s professional enough to leave her phone on silent and in her bag, she can’t bring herself to pay attention to what the man in the front of the room is saying. Instead, she thinks about what will be happening in seven hours and what she hopes might happen in nine. She thinks about Scott’s squinty grin from the picture he sent her during brunch, and wonders if he’s texted her any updates in the meantime. The pull to reach into her purse and check her phone (an action that most of the room seems to have had no qualms about less than fifteen minutes into the talk) is increasingly strong but, like the professional she is, she resists. 

Or at least she resists until the exact second the lecture organizer stands and announces that they’ll be taking a twenty minute break and might even be able to make it out a little early if everyone reconvenes on time. 

But there are no new messages.

It’s ridiculous how deflated that makes her feel but she’s smart enough to know that Scott has his own meetings today, all of her siblings are busy, and her mom won’t be picking up Jo from school for another hour and a half. What she does have are a few work emails to read through, but she needs to stretch her legs so she slips her phone into her jacket pocket and joins the line for coffee and snacks. 

Once she has her refreshments she shoots off quick replies to three emails and ducks into a quiet alcove in the old hotel hallway to make a quick call to the office manager at her practice to clarify what exactly it is that the fantastically efficient woman needs from her. She manages to wrap up the call right as everyone starts flowing back into the room but just as she’s about to stow her phone away, it buzzes and she sees a picture of one of the saddest looking tacos she’s ever seen, quickly followed by a picture of Scott’s grimacing face. 

Tessa can’t help the stupid smile that blossoms at his ridiculous look. 

Damnit. She’d really much rather flirt with him via text than head back into the lecture, but she’s not one to haunt the halls on her phone while someone is supposedly teaching her something, so she sends back a taco emoji and and a winking face and then slides her phone into the side pocket of her bag and heads back into the stifling room. 

When she slips back into her seat a few minutes after the lecture has started back up she can’t quite find it in her to feel guilty.

*

Scott’s brain short circuits for a few seconds too long after he receives the emojis from Tessa. If he took the time to think about it for half a second, he’d recognize that Tessa, as hilarious and fun and sexy as she may be, is not the type to flirt via emoji while stuck in a boring lecture. 

But he doesn’t take that second and he’s still hungry and he’s walking down a busy street and she texted _that_. So he replies with:

_Is this when I’m supposed to reply with the eggplant emoji? I never know. ;)_

Because he’s in a hurry to make it to his next meeting, but still needs food, he sticks his phone in his pocket as he gets to the front of the line at a hotdog stand and doesn’t think more about it until he’s standing on a platform with a bunch of other people, waiting for the subway. 

He pulls out his phone and sees he’s gotten no response and his eyes immediately get wide and he can feel himself flush. 

Damnit. 

A not insignificant portion of his brain recognizes that she likely hasn’t seen the message yet and that’s why there’s no response. Neither of them have read receipts on (and Scott honestly doesn’t understand why anyone ever has them turned on) so there’s no way of knowing for sure, but she’s probably paying attention to the lecture and has put her phone away. That’s her style, right? 

But what if she did see it? What if she saw that stupid eggplant comment and is horrified? 

And because he’s matured in the last ten years, but still has an innate need to fix things that he thinks he might have broken, he fires off a series of messages in hopes that if he’s done some damage or offended this incredible woman, he can still salvage this thing they’ve got going. 

**Did that come out too creepy? It was supposed to be funny, but I’m afraid I might have tipped over into creepy territory.**

When he doesn’t get a response for a few moments he adds: 

**I think I’m too old for emoji code**

When she doesn’t respond to that -- _probably because she’s busy, dumb ass_ \-- he composes a longer message and hits send before he second guesses himself: 

**But really, I need you to know that I respect you and cherish any minute I get with you. It’s not just about jokes and sex and I don’t want you thinking that’s all this means to me. Damn I hope I didn’t fuck this up. You’re probably in your lecture and I’m freaking out over nothing. I hope your class goes well.**

He heaves out a heavy sigh.

Now it’s his turn to be stuck in a meeting with his phone stashed away. 

*

As soon as the lecture is over, Tessa puts her notes away and pulls out her phone. She sees that there are three messages from Scott, two messages from her mom and one message from the office manager. 

She calls her mom before she looks at her other messages, hoping she manages to catch her before she’s taken Jo to the nail salon. 

“Mom!” Jo greets her, pure enthusiasm. From the slight echo on the line, Tessa is fairly sure her call is being routed through the media system in Kate’s car’s.

“Hey baby! How was school?” 

“Fine. We got to make crystals in science. They only sort of started forming today but we’ll be able to see tomorrow if we made our solutions correctly.” Jo’s speaks very methodically and studiously and Tessa can’t help but smile at how serious she sounds. 

“That sounds fantastic. What else did you learn?”

Jo fills her in on her day, and then confirms that she’s going to get rainbow nails but still isn’t sure if she wants it to be all the colors on every nail, or each nail to be a different color. 

“Just go with whatever your gut says in the moment, Bug. It’ll be awesome either way.” It’s sunny out, if a little chilly, so Tessa sits on a bench outside of her hotel as she listens to Jo tell her about the dinner plans she and Kate has made. 

“Tess,” Kate pipes up. “We’re here, so we should go ahead inside.”

“I’ll let you go,” Tessa agrees. “Dinner isn’t for another few hours so if you want to Facetime me after so I can see what you both went with, I won’t be sad.”

Kate chuckles and then the three of them exchange their love yous and goodbyes. 

Tessa checks in with her office manager and is told that all is well, then she checks into her hotel. 

She doesn’t look at Scott’s messages until she’s kicked off her shoes, hung up her clothes, and pulled her hair back in a messy bun. 

What she finds leaves her more confused than anything. 

She reads Scott’s messages several times and scrolls back up to look at what she’d said to him. His complete chagrin in his last message has her fully perplexed and she’s about to text Jordan to see if she has a clue what’s got him all flustered, when it dawns on her. 

Her laugh starts slow and deep in her belly as her cheeks heat up and she realizes that she’d sent him a fucking taco emoji and then chose to pair that with, not just the _maybe neutral, maybe coy_ wink emoji, but the fucking wonk-eyed wink emoji with it’s tongue sticking out. 

Holy shit. 

She actually finds it hilarious and rather smoothe how he followed that up with a nod to food emojis as sexy stand-ins, and then feels horrible when she realizes that her lack of response had sent him spiraling. 

That sobers her up super quickly. 

She shoots him a text first that is just the cry-laugh emoji, and then follows up with: 

_ **Just got settled into the hotel room. It took me entirely too long to get the joke and then I spent the next five minutes laughing my head off. Partly at myself for just how lewd I accidentally was, and then more at your joke. It’s not fair that I find you this hysterical.** _

And then she adds: 

_ **I promise you fucked nothing up. I could barely focus today I am so excited for our date tonight. And our *tonight* tonight. {{heart}}** _

Tessa only has to wait a minute before he’s texted back: 

**Oh thank GOD! I’d never forgive myself if I jacked this up on the second (or is it third?) date. See you in a couple of hours?**

Tessa smiles at his response before tapping out: 

_ **1 hour and 40 minutes. But who’s counting? Just one question for you before tonight? When eating a taco, do you tilt your head or tilt the taco? There might be a test later. ;)** _

**I’ll gladly give you a refresher in my tilt technique tonight if you need a reminder. ;)**

Yes. Please. 

Tessa showers quickly, avoiding getting the water on her her hair or face, which is always more difficult than she thinks it will be. Once she feels refreshed, she pulls half of her, mostly dry, hair back into a small, loose bun before fixing what make-up she already has on, but not changing much. 

The hotel Tessa stays in has a few excellent restaurants, but she chose one of the more casual options for this date. It’s nice enough, but she also won’t feel horrible if they call it a short night either. Jo (and maybe more importantly Jordan) had both approved of the black wrap dress with a floral print she chose for tonight. It’s silk, and feels nice against her skin, but the print is both simple and beautiful with muted maroons and soft golds and creams. It feels pretty when she slips it on over her deep red lace bra and panty set. 

She’s ready half-an-hour early, so she makes sure her clothes are set out for tomorrow morning, and then Facetimes with Jo and Kate, doing a twirl for her daughter and oohing and ahing over Jo’s nails. 

“I thought about what you said, Mama, and my gut said _both_,” Jo says. The shrug she gives and her raised eyebrow cracks Tessa up. 

“Of course you did! Both was a solid choice.”

What Jo means, is that one hand has each nail painted with a different color of the rainbow -- “I don’t have enough fingers on one hand to do _all_ of Roy G. Biv, though.” -- and the other has all of the same five colors painted diagonally across each nail. It’s cute. 

“Okay, baby, you need to eat your dinner and finish your homework. I probably won’t have a chance to talk to you again tonight, so be good. I love you, Bug!”

“Love you, too, Mama. Goodnight!”

“Have fun tonight, Tess,” Kate encourages her. 

“I will,” Tessa agrees. “Thanks for everything. I love you.”

“Love you, too, baby. Talk to you tomorrow.”

And now she has five minutes to kill. 

Except she doesn’t because as soon as she tosses the phone back onto her bed, there’s a knock on the door. 

Has she mentioned that she likes how punctual he is?

*

The relief Scott feels once Tessa has reassured him that she didn’t find his emoji banter offensive is immense, but when his meeting gets out and he still has time to kill he ducks into a coffee shop to get some caffeine. It’ll backfire on him to drink it this late if all they do is cuddle like she’d hinted at last week, but their last text has seemed to point in a decidedly less innocent trajectory for the night and in that case, the caffeine can only help. 

His coffee doesn’t take long to drink and the anticipation starts to rise up again and is transitioning into nerves, so he packs up his stuff and heads down the road again. 

He actually passes the small flower shop before registering it and heading back in. 

Scott knows with her travel, a real bouquet might be a bit impractical tonight, but he figures he can look. 

“Are you hoping for something in particular, sir?”

“Hello,” he greets the older lady who is sitting on a stool behind the counter. She has her long, gray hair braided and she looks nothing and everything like he’d expect from a flower shop lady. “I’m meeting my,” he pauses and swallows before finishing with, “girlfriend?”

“It’s new then?”

“Pretty new,” he agrees. “We’ve been friends for months, but the dating...”

“What does she like?” she asks, her hands now folded neatly in front of her as she looks around the room, indicating he should do the same. 

“Not roses,” is the first thing that pops out of his mouth. “She seemed pleased when the flowers I got her the other day had those ones,” he points at a burnt orange flower that he doesn’t know the name of and then to another. “And those.”

“Okay. So Zinnias and mums,” she says. 

“The whole thing was a lot like that one,” he says as he points at a small vase full of flowers behind her. 

“Are you wanting the same thing again? Or something different?”

“She’s traveling,” he thinks aloud. “So maybe something small or simple?”

“What about these lily’s,” the woman asks, her expression neutral as she points to some deep purple flowers.

Scott manages to suppress his snort when he notes their eggplant shade. “Maybe not those.”

The woman looks at him and cocks her head before asking, “Tell me your three favorite things about this woman.”

“Oh. Wow. Okay,” he says, rubbing his hands together absently as he takes a second to think. “Tess is calm. She’s funny and seems to laugh easily, but her energy is soothing. Gentle, but firm. She’s kind and generous and so strikingly beautiful that she’ll take your breath away.” He shrugs. “I guess that’s more than three things.”

“Well you’re certainly taken with her,” she says with a soft smile. “What I have in mind is simple. Three of these, held together by twine,” she points to a flower that’s almost like a daisy. It’s a deep, deep red with a yellow center. They look delicate. 

“I’ll admit, they probably won’t make it home with her if she’s traveling, but they’ll make her smile for tonight,” the woman says. “Sometimes it’s nice to have something pretty even if they only last the night.”

“What are they?” he asks. 

“Cosmos rubenza.”

The way she’s looking at the blossoms, like they’re something special even though all he can see is a simple, if pretty, flower, decides it for him. “I’ll take those.”

“Excellent. Give me a few minutes.”

She tries to only charge him five dollars for the flowers but he slides a fifty dollar bill across her counter, picks up the bundle and bids her good night. 

The trip to the florist took a little longer than he expected so once he’s done he walks straight to the hotel and checks in at the desk to pick up the key Tessa has authorized them to hold for him, so he can access the floor she’s on. He checks the mirror in the elevator to make sure that he looks okay. He’s wearing the same black slacks, and dark grey button up he’d worn for the rest of the day. His boots, also black, are his date night pair, and his jacket is a little nicer than his usual hoodies that he typically wears in the fall. He runs his hand through his hair, hoping that he makes it look better rather than worse, since a few strands seem to have gone rogue during his walk. 

And then there’s no time because the elevator door’s opening and he finally gets to see Tessa again. 

*

“Hi,” she says as she steps back from the door and invites him in. He enters the room, sets his bag down in the alcove by the door and as he turns back to her, Tessa can’t help but hug him. 

As soon as she slides her arms around his torso Scott returns the embrace and breathes her in. God she smells amazing. He once again marvels at how well she fits in his arms. He presses a kiss against her hair and feels her press her lips against the underside of his jaw and he hums in response. 

They pull back from the embrace and he cradles her face with one hand as he presses his other hand, the one still holding her flowers, against her waist, and just looks at her. “Fuck, you are pretty, Tess,” he tells her as he rubs his thumb along her jaw and then kisses her. 

Tessa kisses back, doing her best to pour a little of her nervous energy and giddy anticipation into him, but pulling back before she crosses the point where leaving the room will be a no-go for the rest of the night. 

“We can totally just order room service,” she says, “but I’m wearing this dress and you look fantastic and we have a reservation for eight minutes from now, and I think I could use some wine. If that’s okay with you.”

Scott can’t help but smile at her crinkled nose and the obvious restraint she’s imposing on herself. 

“Just one more kiss?” he asks. 

“Yes,” she agrees, nodding enthusiastically. 

He makes it good. Deep and wet and messy enough that she may have to fix her lipstick. When she groans into his mouth he gets close to asking for room service and some focused time with his mouth on her and hers on him but he pulls back as soon as he’s tempted and says, “Okay, okay, okay,” before resting his forehead against hers and catching his breath. “Dinner and then we can come back and continue that?” 

“Yep,” she agrees as she takes a step back and out of his arms. 

It’s then that he remembers the flowers and hopes he didn’t crush the delicate petals. As he holds them up he can see that one is a little crushed but the other two seem to be fine. 

“I had some time to kill after my last meeting,” he tells her as he hands the simple cluster of flowers to her. 

Tessa takes them and rubs her index finger along one of the soft blossoms. They’re sweet and simple and a gorgeous color that matches the reds in her dress. “They’re lovely. And they match,” she tells him as she holds them next to one of the clusters of flowers on her dress. 

“They do,” he agrees. Tessa kisses him on the cheek, glad she went with the lip stain rather than something that would have been destroyed by their kissing. “Give me a minute?” 

“Of course,” Scott agrees. 

Tessa takes one of the glass cups that are sitting on the wet bar in the room and fills it with water and then plops two of the short-stemmed flowers into them. She knows from looking at them that they won’t last more than a few days, but that’s okay. Then she looks back at them and down at her dress, plucks one out of the cup, dries the stem off with a towel and slides it into her hair so it’s sitting above her right ear. 

A second glance in the mirror shows her make-up is miraculously still intact, so she pulls her wrap out of the closet and turns back to Scott. 

They hold hands on the way up to the restaurant and opt to sit on the same side of the booth instead of across from each other. They only let go of each others’ hands when it’s time to eat -- Scott opts to drink his wine with his left hand otherwise. 

Tessa has two glasses of wine and only half of her pasta dish. Scott eats most of his meal efficiently as they talk about their childhoods growing up in and around London. They tell stories of pranks pulled in high school, ridiculous things they did with their siblings (and had done to them by their siblings as they’re both the youngest).

Scott makes Tessa laugh more than once. Her full throated, up from her belly, practically a cackle, gorgeously hearty laugh that he’s already half in love with. But she makes him laugh, too. She’s not known for being hilarious, though she can occasionally land some zingers, and her parents always thought she was a funny kid, but even jokes that would land like lead with other people in her life, seem to crack him up. It makes her ridiculously happy. 

Once they’ve both had their fill and they’ve relaxed somewhat into their conversation, Tessa turns so she’s resting her head in her hand with her arm is propped on the table. “So about the emojis,” she starts. 

“Yeah,” he replies, keeping his tone even but letting her know he’s with her. 

“Just know that I’m not all that easily offended,” she says. “Meanness makes me angry, someone being cruel is frustrating, and if you were being sexist or demeaning, I’d absolutely call you out on it and expect you to do the same thing for me.”

Scott notes that she frames it as a service, rather than a reprimand. Interesting. 

“But we’re in a sexual relationship and I sent you something that, looking back, is considered extremely suggestive. And your response was funny and kind of endearing, really,” she says as she squeezes his hand. “I like that you’re a kind and caring person, but I also like that you’re funny and sexy and playful.”

“I enjoy that about you, too.”

The low pitch to his voice there hits her in the gut, even as the words are mostly very sweet. “Know that I work hard to give the people in my life the benefit of the doubt when something might hit me wrong. If something feels wrong to me, I’ll do my best to ask you about it.” 

“Okay. I’ll do what I can to do the same,” he replies, though he already knows that his tendency to stew in silence can rear up at the worst times. So he tells her that. “I’m not always the best at communicating when I’m hurt. But it has gotten easier over the years.”

“Oh yeah,” Tessa says with a nod in commiseration. “It’s taken me years of work to get to the point where I can address things quickly, rather than let it sit there while I over think it or work myself up. And I still have my bad days where getting the words past my teeth seems impossible,” she admits. “But I’m happier for it. Asking for clarification or an explanation or even an apology, rather than having to make assumptions or wonder...if nothing else, it frees up so much time.”

“And if there isn’t the opportunity to address it right away? How do you handle that?” he asks out of genuine curiosity. 

“Never assume malice when ignorance or misunderstanding are also possibilities,” she answers with a shrug. “Which doesn’t mean that if I know someone is cruel or habitually hurtful, that I ignore that. Those people exist. But if I either don’t know the other person, or do know them and find them to be generally kind and good or at least trying to be, I do what I can to assume nothing, or assume the best until I do get to have that conversation.”

Scott is pretty sure that he’s falling in love with this woman. Which feels a little ridiculous, but damn if she doesn’t just blow his socks off on the regular. He doesn’t say that, though. Instead, he kisses her forehead with all the affection he already knows he feels and says, “Whatever you’re doing is working. I’m learning and relearning so much from you.”

Tessa looks up at him, catching his eye for a long moment, and then she leans in and kisses him. 

They settle the check efficiently, but neither of them are in a rush. There’s something about sitting next to the other person, just sharing space together, that’s soothing and pretty fantastic in its own right. 

Scott helps Tessa out of the booth and they walk out hand in hand. They don’t talk on their way back to her room, and Tessa finds herself resting her head against his upper arm as they lean back against the far wall of the elevator, the hand that Scott isn’t already holding now lightly wrapped around his forearm like she’s hugging him. 

As is his want of late, Scott drops a kiss to her hair and closes his eyes as they wait for their floor. 

They don’t say anything as they enter the room, but Tessa doesn’t leave Scott wondering about the night’s trajectory as she moves to the closet, hangs her wrap back up and then strips out of her dress and hangs that up, too. She’s left in a dark red set of lacy, cheeky underwear, that highlights her fantastic ass, and a matching bra. The color sets off her skin in away that has him wanting to reach out and touch her, but also a little in awe and feeling unworthy. The pull he feels wins out, though, and he steps toward her as she takes off her long necklace and secures that and her bracelets in a little pouch. 

“I’m just gonna...” he murmurs as he approaches. He catches her eye in the mirror and she nods at him, eyes wide. 

Tessa hisses when his lips touch her shoulder, but he smiles as she leans back into his mouth. He drops several kisses against that shoulder, and then moves her hair over so he can kiss the nape of her neck before blowing against it, cheekily. 

She laughs as she shivers and the sound of it delights him.

“One of these days, I’ll get to take your dress off of you,” he says, lips still against her skin. Freckles dapple her shoulders and chest and he runs his fingers over them. He catches her eye in the mirrored door of the closet and is thoroughly entranced by the way she smiles at him. It’s not seductive in the least. Just...happy. 

“I could put it back on for you,” she offers, her grin turning wry. 

“No, no,” he says, hastily. “This is good.” He runs his hands down her arms and clasps her hands in his for a brief squeeze before moving them to the curve of her waist. 

“Maybe we could get you down to your skivvies sooner rather than later this time,” Tessa suggests as she turns and faces him, her hands moving to the top button of his shirt. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Ya know,” he jokes, “I _was_ thinking it’s a little hot in here.”

“Oh, well, that won’t do,” she says as she starts to undo the buttons. She runs her fingertips into the V of his undershirt and then presses a long kiss there followed by a quick lick. The sound that comes out of his throat would be embarrassing in any other circumstances. Both his shirts are gone in no time and then she’s running her nails lightly over his pecs and it makes him swallow hard and move in to kiss her. He hesitates just as he reaches her lips and raises his eyebrows in question. 

Tessa pulls her face back as she peers at him, sliding her hands up to his shoulders and caressing him there, a bit absentmindedly. 

“I love how much you check in,” she says, keeping eye contact. “But I think, for tonight at least, I’m going to suggest that unless you think what you have in mind might be a little weird, or there’s pain involved or it’s something other than, I dunno, hot as fuck vanilla kissing and touching, we just go with what feels good. If either of us need to pull back, no hard feelings.” 

He searches her face and then nods. “I can do that,” he agrees. “Just one thing first, same question as last time,” he gives her a gentle smile. “What are you hoping for here? How far are you wanting to take this?”

Tessa purses her lips as she tries to suppress a smile, her eyes sparkling in the dim light, and then she slowly runs her hand down his front and cups him over his slacks. “I would like to feel you inside me tonight. If you’re game.” And then she does the cutest damn thing and hides her face against his chest and he can practically feel her cheeks flush against his skin. 

From how stiff his erection has gone under her palm he hardly needs to answer verbally but he presses a kiss against her temple and says, “More than game.” 

Without looking back up at him, she moves to unclasp his belt, and then doesn’t bother pulling it out of the loops before undoing his fly. She doesn’t hesitate after that to slip her fingers under his boxer briefs and push his pants and underwear down his legs, and he has to reach down quickly to keep his dick from hitting her square in the face as she kneels down in front of him. 

“Oops,” she says with a laugh. “Almost got an eggplant to the eye right there.”

“Oh my god, Tess,” he laughs at her wide eyes and genuinely tickled expression. She’s such a heady mix of adorable dork and hot as hell and he’s, frankly, torn between being blown away at the fact that she’s planning on blowing him right now and wanting to kiss the living daylights out of her cute mouth. Surprising even himself he goes with the second option. 

He quickly kicks out of his pants and boxers, leans over to pull the bedspread back to reveal the sheets, disturbing the pillows in the process, then reaches down and scoops her up before laying her on the bed and climbing up next to her. He catches a hint of her baffled look before he kisses her. Thoroughly. With every part of his mouth. 

She makes a cute little noise of satisfaction in the back of her throat and then he’s moving to kiss her there, tongue dipping into the hollow, lightly sucking at her pulse point as he reaches behind her so he can flip them so she’s straddling him. 

“Oof,” she says with a laugh. “This what it’s like when I give you room to play?” The fond smile that’s gracing her lips tells him that she doesn’t mind but he takes a deep breath and slows down a bit to look at her. Her hair is already starting to escape her half-bun, and her chest is heaving a little from the long, intense kiss and the whiplash of the various position changes. 

He huffs out and says, “Sorry,” as he runs his thumb along the line of her bra. “Wasn’t quite ready for you to blow me yet.” 

“Oh,” she replies, he brow furrowing a little. 

“No, no,” he soothes as he sits up and cradles her face in his hands. “I am very much looking forward to that, but I just needed to kiss you a little more first. I want to touch you more before I have your mouth on me and you’ve blown my mind into the stratosphere and I end up needing a shit ton of recovery time.”

Tess snorts and shakes her head at him, “You should keep your expectations a little lower there, buddy,” she jokes, but he can feel the vulnerability behind the laugh. 

“You blow me away on the daily, Ms. Virtue,” he says as he kisses her again. And then she’s grinding down against him and his hands are on her back and finally, finally he unhooks her bra and has unfettered access. He kisses down her sternum as his fingers dance along the ridges of her spine and fuck he loves how she smells when she’s warm like this. He pulls back and pulls the bra off of her, setting it on the nightstand before running his thumbs along the faint ridges it’s left on her skin. He kisses the top of one breast, then the other, before clasping her right nipple lightly between his teeth. Scott is immediately rewarded with her thrusting her hips down and forward, finding friction against his pelvic bone. She lets out a little puff of air before swallowing down a low hum. 

She still has her underwear on but the thin fabric does nothing to keep her from searching for more friction as she pulls his face up to hers and kisses him and moves against him and kisses him and moves against him and kisses him until she’s gasping into his mouth and shuddering against him and…

“Did you just come grinding against my pubic bone?” he asks when he puts all the pieces together, the awe of just how light a trigger she has naked in his voice. 

“Maybe?” she says, again burying her face in his neck as her chest heaves against his and she tries to catch her breath. 

He snakes his hand down to touch her and groans when he feels how freakin’ wet and warm she is. 

“Fuck,” he drags out the word if only to keep himself from following them with _I love you_ because he’d mean it, he would, but he’d mean it like people say they love chocolate, or they love the Leafs. He’s so close to meaning it another way, a better, bigger way, but even Scott Moir, with his perpetual heart on his sleeve, is not in love with this dynamite woman after three dates. Or if he is, he sure as hell isn’t dumb enough to say it in the middle of sex for the first time. 

And again, he means love like really, really admire. Really, really, truly admire. 

“Hey,” she says, quiet, with a question. “You with me?” Tessa leans back so she can get a better look at him, her brow furrowed, but she still has a lazy, hopeful smile going. 

Scott shakes his head to clear it. “Absolutely,” he tells her as he brushes a strand of hair off her face. “And I believe I have a taco eating technique to demonstrate.”

This time when he flips her to her back so she’s lying against the pillows, she laughs loud and free, her legs falling open easily and he doesn’t even take a breath before he’s nuzzling his nose against the fabric of her underwear before dragging his top teeth over her mound. She jerks her hips against his face as her laughter stops, and he barely pulls back quickly enough to avoid getting hip checked in the nose.

He chuckles as he hooks his thumbs into her underwear and drags them down and off. 

Scott licks at her hooded clit first, just to get that jerk one more time and she clutches at his head hard enough, he’s not entirely sure if she’s holding him there or holding at bay. He realizes she’s likely too sensitive for a direct approach right now so he hums in understanding and kisses his way along her thighs and lower belly before slowly circling back to her sex. 

She’s pink and wet and swollen already and he barely has to move his finger to her entrance for her to welcome him in. He quickly follows that finger with another and the way she gasps as he licks at her again tells him they’re back on the same page. She’s tight and warm and the sounds his fingers and mouth are making against her wet skin has him humping the mattress as he slips a third finger in and she makes the most intriguing, encouraging noises and he can’t help but smile against her. Her hips are bucking against his hand and her breath is coming in pants as he works her up, moving his fingers in a massaging pattern against her walls, focusing up and forward and then just as he’s almost sure he could make her come just like this, he puts lips over her clit, alternating between sucking and flicking it with his tongue. 

She shatters under him and it’s maybe his favorite thing ever. 

He gives her little kitten licks, along her lips and next to his fingers, drawing her orgasm out as long as he can until she pushes his head away while coaxing him up beside her. He lays his head on her belly as he waits for the little aftershocks to subside, wiping his wet fingers, already starting to prune a little against her flank in a soothing, calming gesture. 

Tessa’s breath calms over the next minute or so and then she laughs again, and he shifts so he can look up and see her face, peering at him through the valley of her breasts. 

“So that’s how you eat a taco?”

Scott guffaws into her belly and says, “That’s absolutely how you eat a taco,” he agrees as he sits up and then kneels beside her, sitting back on his heels as he looks down at her and sees just how wrecked she looks. “The trick is to tilt your head _and_ the taco.” He reaches to move the hair off her face and can’t look away. She’s breathtaking. 

Tessa reaches out and grasps his erection, stroking it a few times, smiling as she watches the movement of her hand. 

“I just need like six minutes to get my breath back and then you’ll get the most mind blowing blow job I can muster.”

“Oh Virtch,” he tells her with a shake of his head as he reaches down to still her hand. “If you want me inside you tonight, I think we may need to skip to that next. I’ll call in an IOU on the blow job another time.” 

Scott is actually pretty sure that if she blows him and he...blows, that he’d be able to get it up relatively quickly, but she looks so boneless and relaxed in this moment and he knows she’s tiring and likely to fall asleep during his refractory period. Plus, fuck if he doesn’t just want to be inside her, like, yesterday. 

She frowns a little at him them, and he leans forward to kiss it off her mouth before standing to go grab a condom from his bag. 

“I put some in the nightstand,” she tells him. “My sister loaded me up this morning.”

“That was kind of her?” he asks. 

“I have some in my overnight bag, too, so it was kindly unnecessary of her,” she says as she pushes up so she’s propped up on her elbow, watching as he moves around the room. 

Scott makes quick work of the putting the condom on and then kisses and licks and nips his way back up her body until he’s settled in the cradle of her thighs, resting his weight on his forearms for a minute before looking her right in the eye. “You want this, right?”

Tessa nods and lifts her head to kiss him. “I absolutely want this. Just maybe...slow. I don’t usually use penetration to get off and it’s been...awhile.”

He nods and kisses her quickly before positioning himself and slowly pushing in. 

Tessa visibly holds her breath and he stills after getting about halfway in, dipping down to kiss her again and then nuzzling his nose against her jaw. 

“Keep going,” she encourages after a few moments pause, so he continues and this time he can feel her breathing through it. 

Scott deliberately focuses on watching for her cues, partially because he wants nothing more than to know her in this moment, but also so he doesn’t lose focus like he might if he let himself feel unrestrainedly. Once he’s in almost to the root, he stills again and smiles when she almost immediately bucks her hips against him slightly. 

“Fuck,” she groans out, “That’s...”

He’s pretty sure it’s a good fuck, but waits for her to move again. She clenches around him and this time it’s his turn to moan in response and press his forehead against hers. 

“I think I need you to move now,” she says and he obeys. 

It’s only another half a minute or so before he’s in an actual rhythm and he has to push up on his hands to give himself a different angle for a bit. Tessa bends her legs and plants her feet so she can move against him as well and Scott loses himself in her. 

It’s no time at all before their pace becomes frantic and all he can see is her skin and eyes and all he can hear is their harsh, rapid breaths, and he doesn’t know if she’s kissing him or he’s kissing her but he remembers reaching down to rub her clit and whiting out when it only takes a light brush against the hood for her to come suddenly and almost violently around him and then he’s clutching at her, face buried in her neck both of them rutting against each other as they ride out their orgasms. 

He tries to roll off of her once he comes down but she whines and squeezes him tight so he gladly stays wrapped around her as they both come down together. 

“That was amazing,” he tells her, all awe and genuine fucking gratitude. “You are amazing.”

“That..” she starts and there’s enough emotion in her voice that he reluctantly pulls back so he can see her face. “Yeah. Amazing works,” she concludes and he can see that there are tears in her eyes. She doesn’t look sad, so much as maybe a little overwhelmed. 

Scott is reminded of her oblique references to not having had many relationships, to not really “doing” relationships and not worrying or caring when she hasn’t had partners in the past and he’s pretty sure now that he misunderstood the extent to what she was talking about. He has so many questions in this moment, but she looks so open and vulnerable that he holds his tongue as he moves to her side and clasps their hands together. He only gets a minute or two before he realizes he needs to take care of the condom before shit gets messier, so he kisses her shoulder and moves into the washroom to dispose of it in the garbage. He takes a second to rinse off, splashing water on his face, then drying it off before moving back into the bedroom. 

Tessa is sitting on the bed, still naked and uncovered, her hair a mess, but a soft smile on her face that helps him feel a little less heavy. They’ll have to talk things through later, but tonight was amazing and he’s pretty sure she had fun, too, so he takes the win as he moves to stand in front of her, kissing her messy hair and hugging her to him. 

“I should take a shower,” Tessa says against his sternum, but he notes that she inhales deeply against his skin like she’s breathing him in, sweat and sex and all. 

“Not on my account,” he tells her. 

“Just a quick rinse,” she says, pulling back, but not before pinching his ass. 

He yelps in response and she smiles baldly at him. 

“It was right there,” she says cheekily as she stands and moves into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. 

He hears the toilet flush and the shower water run, but it’s only a few minutes before she’s opened the door again, though she stays in the bathroom and he watches from the bed as she methodically removes her make-up and goes through a short skin care routine. 

He feels like he could watch her in this state forever. 

She’s applying moisturizer when she lets out a big, loud yawn and then catches his eyes in the mirror as she grimaces sheepishly. 

“You wore me out, too, Virtch,” he tells her with a shrug. 

“I feel like I could sleep for days,” she admits. 

Scott looks at the clock. It’s only eleven pm and her train doesn’t leave until ten so if they get to sleep soon she can easily still get a full night in. 

“Finish up and we’ll do that cuddling you talked about last week,” he tells her. 

She visibly perks up at this. He heads into the bathroom with his own kit and they brush their teeth side by side since there’s a double sink, and Scott can see their future so vividly that it damn near knocks the breath out of him. 

Tessa gives him a maniacal grin through a mouth full of foam before spitting the toothpaste out and saying, “I’m so sexy right now,” with the shittiest attempt at a wink. 

“Oh, if only you weren’t right,” he says before filling his cupped hand with water and rinsing his mouth out as she does the same. “You’re still naked and the hottest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, Tess. You’ll need a lot more than toothpaste foam to change that.”

“Thank you. And you are the hottest thing I’ve ever seen as well.”

“Thanks,” he replies with a baffled nod. 

“I’ll convince you some day, Moir.”

He just shakes his head. 

They start to watch a rerun of Cheers as they cuddle together in the bed and Scott laughs more at how much Tess is laughing than at the show itself but the episode isn’t even half over before she’s yawning and then he’s yawning, so he points the remote at the TV and turns it off. Tessa doesn’t put any protest, her eyes already half closed. 

“This was the most fun I’ve ever had on a date,” she says, her eyes fully closed now. “Or after a date, I guess.”

“Agreed,” he tells her. “I can’t wait til next time.” 

“Soon?” she asks. 

“I’ll be back in town next Saturday,” he tells her. “And I should be in town for a few weeks after that. So, yeah. Soon,” he agrees. He’s already dreaming of the days when they share a bed permanently and only his or her travel will keep them away from each other rather than prudence and propriety of taking a relationship in ordered steps. He doesn’t mind the steps, likes them even, but there’s still a large part of him that looks forward to being on the other side of the uncertainty. 

Though, weirdly? There’s very little uncertainty for him. He just hopes she feels the same. 

“Good,” she replies. “I’m gonna fall asleep now. I’ll see you in the morning?”

“Sleep. I’ll wake you in time to get ready for your train,” he assures her, his eyes slipping shut as well. “Goodnight, Tess.” 

“Goodnight, Scott,” she breathes out against his bare chest and then they both fall asleep.


	4. in other words, hold my hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa’s phone rings during their fourth date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally just meant to be a gift for E's birthday based off a riffing conversation we'd had when she was trying to figure out the direction for FLY. Which turned into having to write three dates before this could be posted because that's how the world works, or maybe that's just us.
> 
> More notes at the end of the chapter.

Tessa’s phone rings during their fourth date. 

When Scott called early that Saturday morning he learned two things in quick succession about Tessa that he previously did not know. The first being her private voicemail is Jo being adorably professional and the second is, she is probably not a morning person. In fact, an hour later when she answers the door, he is beginning to realize just how much she does really like him since he can’t figure out any other reason why she called him back so quickly after he left a brief voicemail explaining he’d hoped to catch her before she started her day at 7am. On a Saturday. 

But with the promise of a coffee stop on the horizon and a travel mug of said beverage clutched firmly in her hands already, he hopes to spend the day making it up to her. Since Jo spends almost every Saturday with her dad, not just every other, this adventure is decidedly a date and Scott can’t help wanting it to be a good one for Tessa after not seeing her for over a week since Toronto. They head into a little independent ‘coffee house-diner-karaoke bar after 9pm’ he knows for its has shockingly good pastries and even better espresso drinks to escape the morning chill. It is still firmly in autumn but there is a bite in the air warning winter isn’t far off. 

“If you tell me what you want, I can order and you can grab a table?” Scott gestures to the relatively open seating to their left in the ‘coffee shop’ section of the building. 

Tessa hums before nodding and saying, “As long as it’s coffee, I’ll be happy. Surprise me.” And then proceeds to leave him in the short line after a brief squeeze of his hand, heading immediately to a table adjacent to the small fireplace with two oversized, wingback chairs, taking off her coat before settling into the one facing him. 

Scott definitely does not have a moment of panic when the cashier asks for his order and certainly doesn’t spend five minutes grilling the poor teen on the varying merits of different baked goods before deciding. 

Eventually he makes his way over to Tessa, “So we have a flat white and a pumpkin spice latte and a black coffee and then a blueberry muffin, fruit and nut scone, an egg bake and some coffee cake.” He places everything down on the table and proceeds to shed his coat, mirroring her earlier action. 

She smiles gratefully before raising her eyebrow, “Panicked?” 

Scott ducks his head under the pretense of shuffling the pastries around, “I wasn’t sure how hungry you were.” Glancing over, he catches the soft look she gives him before reaching out to squeeze his hand. 

“Thank you, I appreciate it. In the future, any of those three are perfectly fine coffee orders and I love a good scone.” 

He laughs a bit while shaking his head, then leans over to give her a kiss on the cheek before taking his seat, “I definitely panicked. Thanks for the information though.” Even after everything they’ve discussed, he likes hearing the ‘in the future’ Tessa lead with. 

It’s about ten minutes into catching up on the little of life that’s happened since they’ve seen each other when Tessa’s phone rings. This surprises him because normally she’s very diligent about turning off the ringer while they are out together but Scott assumes it must be something relating to Jo when she looks at the screen and apologizes while answering, “Sorry, I just have to get this. Hello?”

He watches as she leans back while turning toward the window next to them. “It’s okay. Deep breaths. What’s happening?” There are a few affirming hums and Scott finds it disproportionately endearing that Tessa nods while agreeing in the conversation and talks slightly with her hands. While he can’t hear what’s being said on the other end of the phone, he can detect some distress in the caller’s voice but assumes if Tessa is as calm as she is, the situation is going to be fine. 

“It’s normal to be upset if he’s upset. Have you tried the pacifier?” A pause and then, “You didn’t forget it. Remember yesterday, you packed an emergency supply in the side pocket. Find it? That’s great! You okay?” Another pause, a little longer this time, “Alright, well I’m going to let you continue strolling and will call you tonight. Call me if you need anything!”

After putting away her phone Tessa turns back to him to say, “Sorry about that. A friend is a new mom and it’s her first time out on her own with her little guy and she was panicking a bit.” The corners of her mouth turn up to match his smile. 

Scott breaks off a piece of scone while replying, “Totally understand. Never hesitate to grab a call if you need to. I know you have a lot of things to keep track of.”

It’s clear she appreciates his response and reaches over to squeeze his hand that’s resting on the table and doesn’t exactly let go this time, “I like spending time with you though. So if I’m doing that, I’d like it to be all I’m doing.” He turns his hand over in response so he can loosely intwine their fingers before grabbing a sip of his coffee. 

“Thank you. I like spending time with you too.” He finds himself staring at her and smiles shyly when she quirks her lips in response. “I bet you’re a great resource for your friends who are having kids.” 

The responding chuckle is quiet and she surprisingly shakes her head a little ruefully. “In a lot of ways, I try and offer what I can but if I’m honest, I was a bit of a disaster at this stage when I had Jo.” Scott starts to try and backtrack, not wanting her to feel obligated to tell him anything that is too personal but she waves him off. “It’s okay.” And firmly squeezes his fingers before releasing his hand to grab a bite of coffee cake. 

“Really! It’s not something that comes up very often anymore because most of the people in my life that I’d be comfortable enough talking about it with were there but,” her gaze flicks slightly over his shoulder and she fidgets with a napkin before refocusing to look directly into his eyes, “I like our talks. I like getting to tell you about myself.” 

It gives his heart a little kick to hear and he’s nodding in agreement before Scott even notices he doesn’t really have a reply other than a loud _YES!_ that is resounding in his brain but apparently his face says enough for her and Tessa continues, “If I’m brutally honest, I had Jo for the wrong reasons.” Scott’s eyebrows must shoot up a bit in question because she rushes to explain. “I do _not_ regret having her. I never have and I never will, but my reasons for having a baby at 23 weren’t exactly realistic looking back now.” 

She pauses and he tentatively asks, “Do you want to tell me what you mean?” 

Tessa seems to think it over for a minute, looking for something in his face over the rim of her coffee cup that she’s holding in both hands, elbows resting on the table in a very relaxed pose. He assumes she must see what she’s looking for because she nods and puts the cup down, “I mean, if you’d like to hear about it, I don’t mind telling you. It’s a little meandering but I’ll give you the abridged version.” 

The small crow’s feet around Scott’s eyes crinkle as he grins. “I don’t really want the abridged version of anything from you at this point, Tess, but whatever you feel comfortable sharing, I want to hear.” 

“You do have a way with words, Scott. No wonder you ended up as a journalist.” 

He shrugs. “What can I say, I like to charm a captive audience.” The belly laugh in reply he gets is fast becoming one of his favorite sounds over the course of their time together. “But in this case, I’m happy to be the audience. You were saying you don’t think your reasons for having Jo were the right ones?” 

Tessa nods and traces the rim of her cup. “I think I mentioned I was 23, and you know I never married Jo’s dad, but I don’t remember if I mentioned we weren’t exactly together when I found out I was pregnant.” He shakes his head but doesn’t say anything, “We were in this weird stage of ‘on the way to broken up’ but not firmly there. He’d finished law school by then and I was working on my thesis and gearing up to apply for Doctorate programs. He was living in Toronto but came back for a mutual friend’s wedding. We had a good weekend together and kind of fell back into ‘single-not single’ and didn’t really think about it much until I called him and said I needed to see him.” She laughs and takes a sip before continuing, “Sorry, just remembering his reaction when I told him I was pregnant. He panicked. Like genuine panic.” 

Scott grimaces a little imagining the worst, Jo’s dad leaving Tessa to have to try and pick up the conversation later. “I’m sorry that happened.” 

Her gaze turns to realization relatively quickly and supplies. “Oh, he didn’t get angry or run away from me. Greg is a good guy. His brain jumped to ‘Tess is pregnant and she wants to have this kid, how do I show her I support her?’ so he asked me to marry him. Which made me panic since I knew I didn’t want to get back together but I did want to have the baby. He got extremely confused when I said no, and I got upset when he couldn’t understand that I wasn’t having a baby to get back together.” 

At Scott’s wince, she nods. “We were young. Not as young as a lot of people, but definitely not in the life place to be having a kid. So when I say my reasons aren’t the reasons to have a child, I mean it. I had Jo because I was financially secure, had a career picked out, and thought it would be a good challenge.” 

When she says the last part Tessa actually tips her face into her palms, clearly a bit embarrassed. She rests her chin on her fist and pushes some stray hair away, “Even now, I just, I don’t know how I got so lucky for my life to have turned out like this. Because those kinds of reasons are a fast track to resenting your kid when the novelty wears off. But I never did. As soon as I had Jo, she was mine. I knew that with my whole heart. I just didn’t have the best balance when dealing with those emotions.” 

Scott cocks his head at her to continue. “What I was saying about being a mess at this point of being a new mom was kind of true. I let Greg stay with me and my mom for the week after I got home from the hospital but since I was breastfeeding there really wasn’t much he could do overnight with us, so I told him to go home. And then I told my mom to go home too.” She begins to shred the napkin in front of her and Scott can sense while she’s in a good place and wants to share this part of her life with him, it’s still a little hard. 

“I had it in my mind that all I needed to be ‘successful’ at being a mom was getting Jo on a schedule. I’d been a dancer most of my life and thrived in that kind of structured environment so I am pretty sure I was defaulting to what was safe and while infants need routines, demanding life happen on a schedule is a little absurd. My timing guesses were always completely off, everything took at least three times as long to do as I planned and I was tired all the time.”

She carefully collects the pieces of the napkin and deposits them on an empty plate. “I can see now, as a mental health professional, I was probably also struggling with some postpartum depression but I think most of it was just me. I was young, and didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I was terrified someone was going to call me out on it and take Jo away.” 

At this Scott can’t sit still anymore and reaches to take her hand again. There has been a soft, almost wistful smile on her lips the whole time she’s been speaking, but when he does that it slips into something more solid.

“It’s ridiculous. When she was about eight weeks old, I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch while my mom took Jo shopping with her. The first big chunk of time I would be apart from Jo since she was born. The lunch plans fell through while my mom was there to pick up Jo. I told her I’d just keep Jo back with me and my mom, my beautiful, wonderful, supportive mother said, ‘oh I can just take her anyway’, in an attempt to give me some time to breathe and I lost it on her.” Tessa winces. Scott gently squeezes her hand in encouragement, support, whatever she needs in this moment to feel safe to share this with him. It seems to help and she continues after a calming breath. 

“It was ugly, and completely irrational. It took me about three hours to be able to see that, but even then I knew something was wrong. My mom stayed with us, got Jo settled after I was sure I traumatized her by sobbing and refusing to put her down, and then we talked. We talked for a long time and at the end of it, we planned. I started seeing a therapist again, we set up specific times during the week when Jo would be with other people in our lives who love her and I joined a playgroup with other new moms. I also had a hard conversation with Greg where I apologized for pushing him away.” 

At this Tessa lets out a deep sigh and looks up at him. Scott is still holding her hand and tugs it towards him before saying. “I’m glad you have so many people who love you and Jo in your life.” 

She draws her thumb over his knuckles and smiles softly at him. “I am too. It’s been quite the journey. And it could have been so much worse but it wasn’t. They caught me so I could focus on Jo.” 

He smiles at her, “And it seems like Jo really thrives with you.” 

She laughs, “Well I can’t take all the credit for her.” 

“I don’t know, she is pretty fantastic and insists she has the best mom.” 

“I’ve met your mom at the rink, I’m going to agree with Jo that I’m the best mom for her.” Tessa laughs lightly and shrugs before grabbing her coffee with her free hand, even if it is slightly awkward, clearly not wanting to let his hand go just yet. “So, I can definitely help my friends plan ahead, pack and have a schedule but that’s not anything unique to my experience as a mother.” 

Scott is shaking his head before she even finishes. “Hey, like you said, it’s a journey and everyone’s is different. Anyone lucky enough to be your friend just needs you to be there. And you’re clearly great at that. In fact, as your friend I’m going to just say you are great.” 

Tessa’s laugh is sharp and bright and causes her whole body to move, pulling her hand free of his to palm her face ruefully. “I appreciate the sentiment, friend I like to kiss, but I think it might be overly generous.” 

Smiling, Scott polishes off the last of the scone and shoots a smirk across the table. “Nope, friends, especially the ones you make out with, get to make these judgment calls. You’ll just have to suffer the great designation.” When her mouth opens to argue the point further he adds, “Careful, or I’ll just start calling you GOAT in public.” 

Her eyebrow raises at him. “I’m going to let you walk that statement back in your head until you realize why it might be a friendship that involves kissing deal breaker.” 

He stops mid-sip of his drink and then nods after a moment. “Just to be clear, we’re more than friends so I’m very biased and no one will convince me you are less than great, but maybe the barnyard nickname isn’t a good call out of context.” 

“Probably not but speaking of, does this wondrous corn maze you dragged me out of bed before 8am on a Saturday to drive to have a petting zoo?” 

Scott’s smile hasn’t really left in the last several minutes but it takes a more mischievous turn at her question as he gets up from the table. “I suppose I should take you and let you find out for yourself.” 

Tessa stands and accepts the help he offers in holding her coat open to put on before he grabs his own from the chair. “This sounds promising. Especially now that the coffee has kicked in.” 

“Oh it’s worth the hype, and I promise to get lost with you.” 

Tessa reaches out for his hand as they exit the cafe, heading for the car, “I like the sound of that.” 

The drive out to Scott’s favorite place for fall festivities takes about 20 minutes but it passes quickly when Scott starts telling tales of his childhood hijinks with some of his cousins out at the same farm. It’s owned and operated by his uncle but he assures her it’s still the best one in the area. 

“Something tells me Moirs don’t really do mediocre,” Tessa says as she watches as the houses get further apart the further they get from the city. 

“This is my mom’s side, but you’re not wrong. I get my competitive streak from both sides of the family.”

“You and your brothers must have been exhausting as kids.”

“Absolutely. Throw our cousins and the other neighborhood kids into the mix and we could get pretty rowdy.”

Tessa shares a little bit about her love of performing and the way she’d mimic her siblings and basically anyone else she admired growing up, and pretty soon they’re pulling into a huge dirt lot with a decent amount of other cars already parked. 

Scott hugs no less than four people within a minute of arriving at the farm. He introduces Tess to his uncle and two of his cousins, along with an elderly lady that Tessa is pretty sure is the uncle’s mother-in-law. Everyone is enthusiastic and kind in their greeting and Tessa immediately feels welcomed in by these people. 

It should feel like too much, too soon, since they’ve only really been dating for a handful of weeks, but it doesn’t freak her out and she doesn’t question why that might be. 

They’re left alone to wander the public areas of the farm, which is already filling up with families and couples alike. Scott takes Tessa to the petting area first and while she seems to enjoy the sheep and goats, if her delighted laughter is any indication, they get held up when Tessa is so taken with an alpaca that she doesn’t want to stop touching its soft, dark wool. 

“You would endear yourself to Nellie,” Scott says with a head shake.

The animal butts her head against Tessa’s shoulder and she scritches Nellie along her forehead. “She’s a sweetie,” Tessa coos. She continues to pet Nellie’s neck and back. It’s been awhile since she’s had a chance to be around animals and she always forgets how much she enjoys them. 

“She’s the meanest animal in this whole damn place, T,” Scott says with a laugh as he looks on in awe at how gentle they’re being with each other. 

“No way,” Tessa replies, complete confusion all over her face. 

“Way. That’s why she’s in this pen by herself with the higher fence. Keeps the little kids from approaching and keeps Nellie away from the other animals. She’s a bully.”

“Shh,” Tessa admonishes. “She’ll hear you.”

“She’s heard plenty worse than that,” Scott tells her. While he started off standing a ways from the two of them, he can’t help but be drawn in by the sweetness of Tessa’s happiness and he eventually stands with her at the fence, arm wrapped around Tessa’s waist. He presses a long kiss to Tessa’s temple, but it’s broken up by the shocking lick of Nellie’s long, warm tongue. 

Tessa bursts into giggles and Scott has to keep himself from gagging. He may be decent around animals but he still hates it when the big ones lick him. 

“You’re so grossed out right now!” Tessa says. 

“Because it’s gross,” Scott says, making sure he’s back out of licking range of the animal. 

“I did not expect that to be something you’d have an issue with,” Tessa points out. 

“I never could get used to it. It’s fine with dogs,” he tells her as he wipes his face with his sleeve and shudders again. “But even then...”

Tessa gives Nellie one more pat and then grabs onto Scott’s arm and kisses his cheek. “Better?”

Scott shakes his head and huffs out a laugh. “Better. But maybe we should go explore the rest of the place.”

They spend the better part of the afternoon on the farm, taking their time in the maze (where they may have made out in a dead end or two), wandering the pumpkin patch, and eating funnel cake, but as they get more and more handsy, Tessa finally whispers, “Take me home?” and Scott gets her in the car and on the road without saying goodbye to any of his family members. He’ll pay for that later but he doesn’t care. 

When they get to her place Tessa leads him up to her room and into the bathroom where she gets the water going and then helps him undress before letting him pull her clothes off one item at a time. He replaces the fabric with his lips and ends up hoisting her up on the bathroom counter so he can kiss her breathless. Tessa reaches into the medicine cabinet and pulls out a condom, slipping it on his cock, both of them ignoring the running water as he slips inside her and she sighs into his mouth. 

“How do you feel so damn good all the time?” she asks as he thrusts into her. 

“Same way you do, Tess. We fit,” he says, his lips brushing against her ear as his harsh breaths ghost over her neck. The room is filling up with steam but she can’t be fussed to stop and turn off the water. 

His hands are firm and strong on her back and as she comes she can’t help but tighten her grip on his hair. It must not bother him because he’s grunting against her shoulder as he comes moments later. 

The stay like that, wrapped up against each other, even after he pulls out. And then he pulls back, kisses her one more time, disposes of the condom and then drags her into the steaming shower. 

“It’d be a shame to waste anymore of the hot water,” he tells her. 

She doesn’t bother to tell him it’s a tankless heater; she already feels bad that they’ve let it run as long as they have. Instead she just smiles and lets him pull her under the flowing water and lets him take care of her. 

Tessa appreciates how methodical and gentle he is as he washes her hair and runs the sudsy loofah over her skin. She sneaks in a few kisses to his chest and the hollow of his throat, one of her favorite spots of his. She offers to wash him as well but he declines since he took a longer than normal shower in the morning and with the air getting cooler and dryer he knows he’ll get too irritated if he soaps up again. 

“I don’t think I knew that guys cared about that kind of thing.”

“Itchy skin is itchy skin, Tess. I don’t fuss too much, but I know how to use lotion and I know enough to not lather up twice in half a day unless I’m rolling in the mud.”

“We’ll just be sure to help each other moisturize when we get out of here,” she teases. 

“You’re joking but I’m totally gonna take you up on that. I’m not as flexible as I used to be,” he winks. “There’s a spot on my back that I practically have to dislocate my shoulder to reach.” 

“To the side of the shoulder blade, right?” 

“Exactly. I’ll get yours if you get mine,” he says as he reaches behind her and shuts off the water. 

They take their time drying off, and then helping each other reach the hard places with Tessa’s rich, unscented moisturizer. 

“This stuff is insane,” Scott says as he reads the label and makes a mental note to buy some for his house. He also makes a mental note of the other bath products Tessa uses. 

“It’s nice, right?”

“Do I want to know how much this will set me back when I inevitably buy some later this week?” 

“It’s not _too_ bad,” Tessa answers with a half-suppressed grimace. “And it lasts a long time.”

“Oh. This is gonna hurt, huh.”

“Little bit, yeah. But it’s worth it, I promise.”

“Considering how much I enjoy touching your skin, you’ll get no argument from me,” he says as he gently massages the moisturizer into the back of her thigh. 

He smiles when he feels her shiver as his fingers dip into the crease where her leg and ass cheek meet. Even with that shiver, though, he can tell she’s probably had enough sexual touch for the time being, so he drops a quick kiss to the base of her spine and then stands up straight to go in search of his boxer briefs. 

She smiles up at him as she shrugs into her robe and sits cross legged on the bed. 

“Is it pathetic if I offer to try and find you some of my brother’s sweats so we can hang out for the rest of the afternoon?” she asks.

“There’s not an ounce of anything about you that’s pathetic, Tessa,” he says sincerely as he pulls his jeans up and moves to button them. “I’m pretty much game to spend any and all free time I have with you, but are you sure you won’t feel over crowded if I stay?”

Tessa takes a moment to check in with herself and see if he’s sensing something she’s missed. After a few moments she shakes her head. “I feel a little bit touched out. Sexually. I’m loving it and I want more but it’s been a lot in a short amount of time. For me,” she admits as she looks him in the eye. “But I don’t want our day together to end?” she poses it like a question. Like there’s an option there that she isn’t entirely sure how to articulate. 

Scott smiles at her and nods his head and offers, “How about if I go grab my go bag from my car, which should have a clean pair of sweats in there and we can watch a movie together. Or make dinner together.” 

“Both?” 

She sounds so hopeful that he nods immediately. “Both.” 

*  
The movie was okay but not exciting enough to keep Tessa awake. Scott is loathe to wake her but her feet are in his lap and his stomach has already rumbled twice, telling him that it’s beyond time to figure something out for dinner. 

Of course the act of moving her legs from his lap to the couch wakes her. 

“I fell asleep on you,” she mumbles against the pillow she’s been sleeping on. 

“It’s one of those afternoons,” he says with a shrug. “I was going to see if I could figure something out for dinner.”

At that Tessa sits up straight and shakes her head. “Yes! We should do that,” she says through a long, full body yawn.

“Maybe we can just order in today? Keep the lazy theme going?”

“Perfect.”

They spend another twenty minutes scrolling through the delivery options from UberEats on her phone before deciding on a Thai place they mutually like and then settling back on the couch to wait for the food. 

It’s raining outside and the sound lulls Tessa back into a bit of a daze but as she shakes herself out of it again she can tell that Scott is thinking through some things. 

“What’s running through your head?” she asks. She’s ninety percent sure that he has some questions for her, but if she’s wrong, she’d still like to know if he wants her to. 

“I have some questions. About you. And I’m not sure if I have any right to ask them.”

“Ask me,” she says. “If I don’t want to answer, or can’t for some reason, I’ll tell you.”

He furrows his brow as he looks more closely at her as if double checking her comfort level. 

“Ask,” she encourages again. 

“Okay. I can’t come up with a non-douchey way to phrase this...”

“I’ll take that under consideration and try not to hold it against you.”

“Excellent,” he replies, though he doesn’t seem entirely reassured. “You said that there hadn’t been many relationships for you since Greg, so I was thinking you meant a handful, but then in Toronto I got the impression it was fewer than I thought and that it’s been longer than makes any sense to me,” he says. And then realizes he didn’t articulate an actual question. 

Tessa takes pity on him though and turns so her she’s facing him on the couch, but pulls her knees up under her sweatshirt and wraps her arms around her legs. “I have been in one sort-of relationship since Greg. Jo was about two-years-old and Matt never met her. It was more of a friendship with very occasional benefits.”

“So that was five years ago?” Scott asks. 

“Yes.”

“And have there been others? With whom you’ve had benefits?”

Tessa snorts at his phrasing but shrugs. “I went out with three other men since then, two of which I ended up having sex with once each and I just...it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly fun either. I’m just not built for casual sex,” she says. “In fact, I was pretty sure I wasn’t built for romantic or sexual relationships at all. I rarely feel any sort of romantic attraction, and sexual attraction is even rarer.”

“But you take care of yourself in that department, so you’re not opposed to sexual stimulation?”

“Orgasms are great and stress relieving. I just have rarely gotten that from a partner. Or wanted to. My understanding is that most people get more turned on when someone else is touching them, partly due to the variance in pressure and not knowing exactly what’s coming. That part usually threw me out of the moment.” 

“But you’ve enjoyed the sex we’ve had?”

“Absolutely.” 

“Do you understand why it’s different?” 

“Some yes, some no,” she admits. “I really, really like you. And you touch me in ways that make me feel good and less anxious and we click. We fit.”

“So you don’t just have sex with me because you know I want it?” 

“Oh god, no,” she answers shifting so she’s kneeling on the couch in front of him. She reaches out and touches his face, smiling at him. “I have loved every minute that you’ve touched me. Even with other people, I’ve never had sex when I didn’t want to on some level, even if it was just intellectual.”

“And you’ll tell me? If you’re not feeling it?” he asks. 

“I won’t ever have sex with you if I don’t want to,” she answers. 

“But...” he can tell there’s more to what she’s saying. 

“There may be some days where the want is less about sexual fulfillment for me and more about making you feel good and knowing that it will make me happy to do that.”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” he admits. 

“I know,” she says with a shrug. “But it’s pretty damn common in relationships. It’s just not usually discussed out in the open.”

“Please don’t ever, ever agree to have sex with me if it’s something you don’t actually want,” he says with a note of desperation in his voice. 

Tessa reaches up to cup his face. “Never. If I don’t want to touch or be touched, I’ll tell you and expect you to respect that.”

“But sometimes it’ll be about something other than sexual attraction for you?”

“Exactly. Sometimes it’ll be about learning new things about you, or me, or relieving stress in you or me, or feeling close to you even if I don’t end up coming or feeling much of anything sexual,” she says. She knows he’s having a hard time wrapping his brain around it but that he’s trying to respect what she’s saying. 

“Will you tell me when it’s one of those times? So I can know where you’re at.”

“If you want me to,” she agrees, though she’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a little bit of fear that if she’s honest about it, he’ll grow tired of her. 

“I’m hearing reluctance in your voice,” he admits. 

“You’re hearing right,” she admits. 

“Why wouldn’t you want to tell me what you’re feeling, even if you’re willing, or happy to have sex with me, but won’t feel the same way I will about it?”

“What if it changes how you see me?”

“Like if you tell me you’re not feeling it that way, I might eventually...leave?” 

“Yeah. It’s actually a pretty common issue in couples counseling. I don’t work in that part of the field, but I’ve done my time and I’ve seen how much not being on the same page sexually can screw up a relationship.” 

Scott looks at her for a minute, really looks at her, and thinks through what she’s said so far and how he feels in this moment. And honestly, he’s a little in awe of her still. It will take more than this conversation for him to wrap his head around it, but he’s pretty sure it’s going to take a lifetime with her before he’s done plumbing the depths of what makes her tick. So he answers. 

“I like having sex, Tess. I really like having sex with you. I hope we get to have a lot more of it, for a long, long time. And I’ll admit that I’m a little wigged at the idea that you might sometimes be coming at sex from a different place than I am and that some days you being willing to indulge me will feel really shitty and I’ll probably want to stop on those days. I can see that happening,” he pauses when he sees her grimace and turn a little inward so he reaches out to cup her cheek and continues, “But I like you. More than I should say at this point. And this is a part of who you are. Keep being honest with me, Tess, and I don’t think I’ll do you wrong.”

The doorbell rings but he doesn’t pull back until she nods at him. Then he gets up to take care of the delivery. 

“You wanna eat in the living room or the kitchen?” he calls out to her from the doorway?

“In here is fine.”

Scott brings the food into the living room and starts pulling the different boxes of food out and spreading them across the coffee table. 

Once it’s all out and they’re about to dig in he settles onto the floor by her side and says, “Can I just...is it okay if I hug you?”

“Please,” she answers with a laugh. 

She buries her face in his chest as he pulls her in. They both sigh as soon as his arms around her and the heaviness of their previous conversation recedes just a little. 

“Think we can make it work?” she asks. 

“I think we can,” he agrees, without an ounce of doubt in his voice as he drops a kiss to her hair.

And then his stomach growls again and she pulls away. “Eat your food,” she says with an eye roll. 

“You eat your food,” he replies with a mock glare as he shoves some noodles into his mouth. And then he groans because he always forgets just how good this place is. 

“See, like, that? Should not ever be sexy, and yet...” she shrugs. 

He actually blushes at the way she stares at him and then they both shake their heads and dig in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically this conversation was the jumping off point for the Fly Me to the Moon series of dates. We outlined to write to this point because clearly the dates before this one left too much of a brain itch to ignore. Most of this was originally the coffee shop conversation but the subsequent discussion they have is equally as dear to us and what it says about this particular fictionalization of Tessa and Scott. 
> 
> Nothing happens in a vacuum and this was probably more of a game of ping pong than either of us ever thought it would be but we sincerely hope you've enjoyed the journey so far. Clearly it's a 'verse we enjoy playing in.

**Author's Note:**

> Let us know what y'all think of this fluff fest, yeah? 
> 
> (as usual, you can find me at boo-writes-stuff on tumblr if you wanna talk TS RPF, and peacefulboo if you wanna talk figure skating, see what kind of fashion makes me happy, and see what memes make me snort. if you can find me on twitter you get three imaginary cookies and further understanding that I love but don't understand figure skating or the world at large.)


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